Ueno, Sonoe2024-08-152024-08-1520032003https://hdl.handle.net/1828/19966This thesis provides a historical analysis of the discourse on prostitution in Japan during the Meiji and Taisho periods (1868-1926) . By tracing the discourse on prostitution, this study delineates the origins of the boundary that divides women into good women and prostitutes-this boundary still remains today. This research demonstrates that the dichotomy is not a unproblematic natural given, but is a historical product which has been shaped and determined by a multiplicity of factors: a series of laws issued in the early Meiji period, the implementation of the "good wife, wise mother" ideology, and the whore stigma that emerged from anti ·prostitution movements.135 pagesAvailable to the World Wide WebThesis