Roles of Women in Medieval Japan

Throughout all of time and society in medieval japan, women have never had the option in what they wanted to proceed in their future life they had to do what the emperor wanted. The women in medieval japan were all brought up being a home wife and taking care of everything while all the men go out and hunt, protect the king and supply for their own family. The jobs and roles that women were assigned were not the hardest jobs or the easiest however, they were difficult and not something you would be wanting to do every single day.

The roles that women had varied between all families back then. However, there were two or three main jobs, which women had to fulfil to stay in your family. One of the roles they were forced to do was a cleaner. If you were women in medieval japan every day, you would stay at home and clean everything every single day. While at home, they also had to teach their children what to do and how to do it. Because they have no choice and if they do not know the essentials they would never be able to get married or have a family. The reason for this was that women were a lot less important than men were and that is why they did not get to choose anything in their entire life. This meant that there were not as many women as men in the higher social classes. Furthermore, the degree of freedom women in japan because it was typically low. The roles changed if you were a higher social class you would have easier roles than people would in lower social class.

There were very few samurai women in medieval japan however if you were a samurai women you were allowed to carry weapons to defend and protect yourself and your family. The most common weapon they had was a dagger they usually placed it in their sleeves because it was extremely easy to access if they needed to stab or throw it at someone. One other weapon, which they used, was the Naginata. This weapon was shaped as a long poled sword however it was extremely light compared to other swords like the katana. Because this weapon was so big, they could really hide it on them so they usually kept it in an easy access space in case they needed it urgently. Women of medieval japan were not all like this so there, husbands normally would have to protect their family.

As geisha women in medieval japan your main role and purpose was to perform and entertain people. The skills that geisha women needed to have in order to carry out their job included traditional Japanese dance, playing musical instruments and being able to speak to the guests who were mainly men. Geisha women were highly were highly respected for what they did and the skills they possessed, also sometimes, they were respected for their wealth I do not know why but they were. There is also a term used for geishas who are young and are often still in the training process called the Maiko.