6.5. What is yamato nadeshiko?
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Image: the flower `nadeshiko'
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Yamato nadeshiko is the name of a flower known as a `fringed
pink' in English, scientific name dianthus superbus. Also
known as a nadeshiko, it is a small, common, but easily
distingushable flower which grows wild. Yamato is one of the
many names of Japan. (See also 3.5. What are the names of Japan?.)
Yamatonadeshiko can also signify a kind of (ideal) woman.
Some features of that kind of woman are:
- feminine
- chaste and devoted to her husband
- always respects and obeys her husband and never opposes him, even
when she thinks he's wrong (she should wisely find an indirect way to
prevent her husband from doing something wrong without letting him
know, that is to say without humiliating him).
- looks weak, delicate and gentle (like a flower) outside her
family, but is able to cope with householding, raising kids etc.
During the second world war, the Japanese government promoted the idea
of yamatonadeshiko as a kind of national propaganda. A
yamatonadeshiko should be gentle and delicate but also be
able to endure all the pain and poverty of life for her husband (a
soldier) and the country, to win the war, and should always be ready
to fight with halberds (or takeyari, a spear made of bamboo
used when you don't have a halberd) and to die any time for her
country, or to keep her chastity.
Edited from a news post by an unknown author.
sci.lang.japan FAQ
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