Hōjō Masako
Hōjō Masako, known as the “nun shogun”, exercised significant political power in the early years of the Kamakura period (1192 to 1333).
Tag Archives: Asian Descent > Japan
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Patsy Takemoto Mink
The first woman of color elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and the first Asian-American woman to serve in Congress. In addition to writing bills like Title IX, the Early Childhood Education Act, and the Women’s Educational Equity Act, Mink was the first Asian-American to run for U.S. President.
Miné Okubo
War internee and artist, Miné Okubo is well known for her representations of daily life and humanity. She is most famous for her drawings depicting Japanese and Japanese American internment during World War II.
Ailes Gilmour
Dancer Ailes Gilmour was one of the young pioneers of the American Modern Dance movement of the 1930s and one of the first members of Martha Graham’s dance company.
After graduating from high school in 1929, Gilmour studied dance and performing arts on scholarship at the Neighborhood Playhouse, where she met the young Martha Graham and joined Graham’s new professional dance troupe. In 1932, Gilmour performed at the opening of Radio City Music Hall with Graham’s company. Their work, Choric Patterns, lasted on stage for only a week, leading Gilmour to comment to a friend that Radio City Music Hall could succeed only when it became a movie theater with Rockettes.
In the 1930s, Gilmour performed with dancer-choreographer Bill Matons, the director of the “experimental unit” of the New Dance League, which had evolved from the Workers Dance League between 1931 and 1935. In 1937, Ailes and Matons performed at the Brooklyn Museum in a Works Progress Administration (WPA) recital. In 1939, they perormed in a WPA-sponsored Broadway musical, Adelante.
Komako Kimura
Komako Kimura was a Japanese suffragist, actress, dancer, theater manager, and magazine editor before World War II.
Genmei
Monarch of Japan from 707 through 715 CE. Genmei was the fourth of eight women in Japan’s history to take on the role of empress regnant.
Genshō
Monarch of Japan from 715 through 724. She was the only empress regnant in Japan’s history to have inherited her title from another empress regnant (Empress Genmei), rather than from a man. Genshō was the fifth of eight women to be Japan’s empress regnant.
Go-Sakuramachi
117th Emperor of Japan, reigning from 1762 until her abdication in 1771.
Jitō
Monarch of Japan from 686 through 697. Jitō was the third of eight women to take on the role of empress regnant.
Kōken
The 46th (with Empress Kōken name) and the 48th monarch of Japan (with Empress Shōtoku name). She reigned from 749 to 758, then, following the Fujiwara no Nakamaro Rebellion, she reascended the throne as Empress Shōtoku from 765 until her death in 770.