Shōjo Sekai

*Shōjo Sekai*
	Volume 3 Number 10, published July 1, 1908.
Editor / Publisher	Sazanami Iwaya
Categories	Shōjo, fiction, nonfiction, poetry, illustration, photography
Circulation	200,000 (peak in 1910)
Publisher	Sazanami Iwaya
Founded	1906
Final issue	December 1931
Company	Hakubunkan
Country	Japan
Based in	Tokyo
Language	Japanese

Shōjo Sekai (少女世界, "Girls' World") was one of the first Japanese shōjo magazines. It was published by Hakubunkan from 1906 to 1931 and specializing in children's literature. The magazine focused primarily on shōjo shōsetsu (lit. "girls' novel", a term for illustrated novels and poems aimed at an audience of girls) and only incidentally on manga.

History

The Shōjo Sekai magazine was initially edited by renowned children's author Sueo Iwaya (巌谷孝雄), better known by the pen name Sazanami Iwaya (巌谷小波).^[1]^[2] Shōjo Sekai was created as a sister magazine to Shōnen Sekai (少年世界, "The Youth's World"), which was also edited by Iwaya, and which began publication in 1895.^[3]

The magazine's early fiction output tended to be of a didactic nature, with tales about self-sacrifice and the importance of obeying one's parents. The stories then started to focus on passionate bonds between girls, often featuring tones typical of the Class S genre.^[4]

According to Kiyoko Nagai, for the first ten years of its publication it was the best-selling shōjo magazine of the time, with peak circulations somewhere between 150,000 and 200,000 copies per issue.^[5]

The final issue of Shōjo Sekai was the December 1931 issue.^[1]

Contributors

Shōjo Sekai had a number of well known contributors over the years, including the following:

Sazanami Iwaya (ja:巌谷小波), author, children's author, editor, publisher
Yasunari Kawabata, novelist and short story author
Chiyo Kitagawa (北川千代), children's author
Tama Morita, essayist
Midori Osaki (ja:尾崎翠), novelist
Kikuko Oshima (尾島菊子), author
Akiko Yosano, poet, feminist, pacifist, and social reformer
Nobuko Yoshiya, author

References

^ ^a ^b Kikuyō-chō toshokan (菊陽町図書館, Kikuyō Town Library) Archived 23 August 2004 at the Wayback Machine. Meiji - Shōwa Shōjo Zasshi no Goshōkai (明治〜昭和　少女雑誌のご紹介, ″Meiji to Shōwa: An Introduction to Girls′ Magazines″) Archived 24 October 2008 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 16 September 2008.
^ Sankō Toshokan (三康図書館, Sankō Library). Sankō Toshokan Zōsho Kensaku - Zasshi (三康図書館蔵書検索ー雑誌, Sankō Library Collection Search - Magazines) Archived 16 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 16 September 2008.
^ Nakagawa, Hiromi 中川裕美 (2002). Waga Kuni ni Okeru “Shōjo Zasshi” no Tanjō to Hensen (我が国における『少女雑誌』の誕生と変遷, “The Birth and Transformations of ‘Girls’ Magazines’ in Our Nation”) Archived 24 October 2008 at the Wayback Machine. Chūkyō Joshi Daigaku Kodomo Bunkagaku Kenkyū Dai-kyū-gō (中京女子大学子ども文化学研究　第９号, Chukyo Women's University Children's Culture Studies, No. 9). Nagoya: Chūkyō Joshi Daigaku (中京女子大学, Chukyo Women's University) Archived 17 September 2008 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 16 September 2008.
^ Dollase, Hiromi Tsuchiya (2019). Age of Shōjo : the emergence, evolution, and power of Japanese girls' magazine fiction. Albany. ISBN 978-1-4384-7392-5. OCLC 1099255863.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^ Nagai, Kiyoko (永井紀代子) (2000). Tanjō - Shōjo-tachi no Kaihōku: “Shōjo Sekai” to ‘Shōjo Dokushokai’ (誕生・少女たちの解放区〜『少女世界』と「少女読書会」, "Birth of the Girls’ Liberated Zone: Girls’ World and ‘Girls’ Reading Circles’"). In Onna to Otoko no Jikū Kyū (女と男の時空　９, “Women's and Men's Space-Time 9”), edited by Nobuko Kohno (河野信子), pp. 278-311. Tokyo: Fujiwara Shoten 藤原書店. ISBN 978-4-89434-212-5.

External links

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[kikuyo-1] Kikuyō-chō toshokan (菊陽町図書館, Kikuyō Town Library) Archived 23 August 2004 at the Wayback Machine. Meiji - Shōwa Shōjo Zasshi no Goshōkai (明治〜昭和　少女雑誌のご紹介, ″Meiji to Shōwa: An Introduction to Girls′ Magazines″) Archived 24 October 2008 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 16 September 2008.

[2] Sankō Toshokan (三康図書館, Sankō Library). Sankō Toshokan Zōsho Kensaku - Zasshi (三康図書館蔵書検索ー雑誌, Sankō Library Collection Search - Magazines) Archived 16 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 16 September 2008.

[3] Nakagawa, Hiromi 中川裕美 (2002). Waga Kuni ni Okeru “Shōjo Zasshi” no Tanjō to Hensen (我が国における『少女雑誌』の誕生と変遷, “The Birth and Transformations of ‘Girls’ Magazines’ in Our Nation”) Archived 24 October 2008 at the Wayback Machine. Chūkyō Joshi Daigaku Kodomo Bunkagaku Kenkyū Dai-kyū-gō (中京女子大学子ども文化学研究　第９号, Chukyo Women's University Children's Culture Studies, No. 9). Nagoya: Chūkyō Joshi Daigaku (中京女子大学, Chukyo Women's University) Archived 17 September 2008 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 16 September 2008.

[4] Dollase, Hiromi Tsuchiya (2019). Age of Shōjo : the emergence, evolution, and power of Japanese girls' magazine fiction. Albany. ISBN 978-1-4384-7392-5. OCLC 1099255863.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

[5] Nagai, Kiyoko (永井紀代子) (2000). Tanjō - Shōjo-tachi no Kaihōku: “Shōjo Sekai” to ‘Shōjo Dokushokai’ (誕生・少女たちの解放区〜『少女世界』と「少女読書会」, "Birth of the Girls’ Liberated Zone: Girls’ World and ‘Girls’ Reading Circles’"). In Onna to Otoko no Jikū Kyū (女と男の時空　９, “Women's and Men's Space-Time 9”), edited by Nobuko Kohno (河野信子), pp. 278-311. Tokyo: Fujiwara Shoten 藤原書店. ISBN 978-4-89434-212-5.

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