SUDO, Nansui.

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Ippin issho: Shinso no kajin. = The Ladies of New Style. First edition in book form of this novel depicting Tokyo's prosperous future, written by an ardent political reformer. Its protagonist is a milkmaid who reads Herbert Spencer, discusses women's rights, and champions dietary reform. Notable events in the story include a contested election, a dynamite explosion, and a secret love affair in a faulty hot air balloon.Sudo Nansui (1857-1920) was a progressive journalist who was active in the lead-up to Japan's first modern election in 1889. He was praised by William Aston for his wide-ranging literary knowledge, being able to quote Shakespeare, Dumas, Gladstone, Dickens, and others. Keene identifies Sudo as one of the only two political novelists of the period worthy of serious discussion, the other being Suehiro Tetcho."The Ladies of New Style takes place in the future, about 1895, when Tokyo had become a marvelously prosperous city with great factories, wharfs, and boulevards... The most attractive feature of Nansui's novel is the high hopes it expresses for the Japan of the future, even though written in a time of political repression" (Keene, p. 88).The novel was first serialized in 20 parts in Kaishin Shinbun (29 September-9 December 1886).

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