The body of the worker

A kimono-clad woman stands on a street corner in an industrial neighbourhood. The woman looks back at two infants, holding each other's hands as they wave to her. She reluctantly departs for the factory, leaving her young children behind. This scene was depicted in a black-and-white sketch which graced the cover of a journal produced for female textile workers in 1926. The illustration, which dramatises the contradictory position of the working mother, reflects a belated recognition that many of the nation's workers, particularly factory workers, were women. In particular, such illustrations as this contrasted with the conventional representations of male workers in socialist publications. The male working class was represented by workers with muscular bodies, union power represented by their fists and boots, wielded in violent confrontation.

In the work of the proletarian arts movement, the power of the working class was expressed in bodily terms. The cover of the leftist journal Senki (Battle Flag) of May 1930 shows the muscular torso of the proletarian, the flagpole of his red flag being wielded like a spear. One painting of the US-based artist Ishigaki Eitarō (‘Ude’ (Arm) of 1929) shows the muscular arm of a worker, wielding the hammer which symbolises the proletarian class. The word ‘ude’ (arm, or hand) refers both literally to the arm portrayed in the painting, and metaphorically to the skills (ude) of the manual worker. In other illustrations of the proletarian arts movement, it is the worker's boot which symbolises power.