1.
Based on chapter one of the Meiji Constitution (1889), why did the Prussian constitution serve so appropriately as a model for Japan’s own constitution? What did the structure of a constitutional monarchy provide to Japan?
Chapter I. The Emperor.
Article 1.The Empire of Japan shall be reigned over and governed by a line of Emperors unbroken for ages eternal.
Article 2.The Imperial Throne shall be succeeded to by Imperial male descendants, according to the provisions of the Imperial House Law.
Article 3.The Emperor is sacred and inviolable.
2.
Why is Keiko’s experience in the 1960 film, When a Woman Ascends the Stairs, a good metaphor for the experience of women in postwar Japanese society?
“ It had been a bleak ordeal, like a harsh winter. But the trees that line the streets can sprout new buds no matter how cold the wind. I too must be just as strong as the winds that gust me around.”- Keiko, When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (1:50:24).
Note: Feel free to discuss the film generally, in addition to the final scene (above), when Keiko makes her way, again, to the foot of the stairs of the club she works at.
On her way, she narrates the above quote. In your discussion, please also keep in mind the “Altered States” (being-woman) in which the author discusses the social discourse taking place in the late-1950s and early-1960s about the role of women in Japanese society. This film was a voice within that discourse.
