6.5. What is yamato nadeshiko?

The flower "nadeshiko"

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.

Acknowledgements

Edited from a news post by an unknown author.

sci.lang.japan FAQ / 6. Word meanings

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