Born on February 10, 1886 (Meiji 19) in Kojimachi, Tokyo, as the third daughter of Hiratsuka Sadajiro, an official of the Board of Audit. Her real name was Okumura Haru. Her pen name 'Raicho' (thunder bird) comes from an alpine bird. She entered the Home Economics Department of Japan Women's University in 1903, graduating in 1906. From student days she was devoted to philosophy and literature, and after graduating studied novel-writing at the 'Keishu Bungakukai.' In 1908 she caused a public sensation when a double-suicide attempt (the 'Baien Incident') with the novelist Morita Sohei at Nasu Shiobara was discovered. In September 1911, at 25, she founded 'Seito' (Bluestocking), Japan's first literary magazine by and for women, establishing 'Seitosha' (with members Yasumochi Yoshiko, Nakano Hatsuko, Kiuchi Teiko, Mozume Kazuko, and Raicho). The opening declaration of the first issue — 'In the beginning, woman was truly the sun, a true person. Now, woman is the moon, living by another, shining by another's light, a moon with a sickly pale face' — is engraved in history as Japan's declaration of women's rights. 'Seito' discussed New Woman thought, love, sex, abortion, prostitution and other issues and was fiercely denounced by society. In 1914 she chose not legal marriage but a de facto union with the painter Okumura Hiroshi, five years younger, and gave birth to a daughter, Akemi. In 1920, with Ichikawa Fusae and Oku Mumeo, she formed the 'New Women's Association,' developing a campaign to revise Article 5 of the Peace Police Law (banning women from political assemblies and parties), successfully revised in 1922. She paused activities during the war. Postwar she led peace and women's movements in the 'Women's Peace Association,' 'Federation of Japanese Women's Organizations,' and 'Women's International Democratic Federation.' She died of gallbladder cancer in Tokyo on May 24, 1971 (Showa 46), aged 85.

A genius-type women's-liberation thinker with mystical tendencies. Studying philosophy, Zen, and Christianity, from youth she continued to question the roots of 'the self' and 'life.' Her bold actions — the 'double-suicide incident,' the 'de facto marriage' — broke head-on with the social norms of her day and drew attention, but in both theory and practice she laid the foundation of the Japanese women's movement. Behind a gentle exterior she hid a burning passion and firm conviction — one of the most important women of modern Japan.

Hiratsuka Raicho holds an enduring position as the founder of Japanese feminism. The opening line of the first issue of 'Seito,' 'In the beginning, woman was the sun,' lives on today as a slogan of the women's movement. The New Women's Association's activities achieved the revision of Article 5 of the Peace Police Law and bore one wing of Taisho Democracy. Postwar she continued to act as the central figure in peace and women's movements, training successors such as Ichikawa Fusae and Tanaka Sumiko. At the former residence in Shibuya, Tokyo stands a commemorative stele, and Japan Women's University has a 'Hiratsuka Raicho Memorial Hall' (in Shioda-daira, Ueda, Nagano). She was also nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.