I'm Hijiri Fujishima from Jibunrashiku LLC.
March 8th is International Women's Day, isn't it? To all women, do you ever feel a sense of unease or frustration living as a "woman"?
In my early twenties, I transitioned from being a childcare worker to an editor for the job information magazine "Travail," constantly thinking about women's lives and work styles. In my forties, I wrote love and marriage columns for All About. During the period I raised my three daughters as a single mother, we were a family of four women. Including all these experiences, thinking about "women's ways of life" has been like a significant life's work for me.
Now, among the "various roles in a woman's life," I planned this event hoping we could discuss the role of "mother" on the eve of International Women's Day.
My mother was this kind of person.
- Waking up at 5:30 AM to take her light-eating child to a nearby park for parent-child radio calisthenics, in order to make them eat breakfast.
- From the age of three, taught polite language including honorifics, table manners, and other etiquette, and enforced over 100 rules for daily habits such as curfew, bedtime, and TV restrictions.
- Never using dashi stock powder, frozen foods, or retort pouch foods; making meals from scratch using dashi; banning snack foods and making homemade snacks daily; and sewing most of her children's clothes with a sewing machine.
- From the age of three, tried to instill emotional control, saying, "Subdue your emotions in your own room before coming out to the living room," and "Being emotional is the same as animals."
- Put her own hobbies aside. Prioritized family with money and time.
Except for her tendency to "control preferences and emotions," I believed that a woman like my mother was a "good mother" and felt I had to become like her, even though we were completely different types of people.
However, while raising three daughters as a single mother, I eventually became exhausted. To find relief, I started an amateur band and began singing. Otherwise, I felt I might lash out at my children.
However, my eldest daughter expected me to be a "motherly mother." Unable to withstand that pressure, one day I surrendered to being a "good mother" (lol). From that moment on, I increasingly realized "what kind of person I am" and "how I wanted to live," and life began to feel enjoyable.
What do we expect from our own "mothers"?
And how do we strive to be as "mothers" ourselves?
What kind of "mother" do we expect our wives to be?
On the day of the event, I will share the process of how I surrendered the role of a "good mother" and reclaimed my individual life.
Also, we will all discuss "the image of a mother". And I hope we can all talk, using a framework, about the differences from our actual "own mothers" and the gap between that and "the person we want to be."
For example, even though the above episodes might seem beautiful, how did a child, who was simply a light eater and not a morning person, truly feel? How did a child feel whose elementary school years ended without ever getting to buy the clothes they wanted, only wearing sewn ones?
Of course, those who are mothers themselves, as well as those who feel "it's painful to try and meet my mother's expectations," "I'm afraid to live like my mother," or "caring for my mother is exhausting," are sure to find insights.
Afterward, I will sing three songs with "mother" as the theme.
We look forward to your participation if you are someone who wants to live your own life for yourself (men who wish to be kinder to women are also very welcome!).
Date & Time: March 7, 2026 (Sat) 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM
Venue: knocks! horikawa
Participation Fee: 1,500yen
*Payment is cash only. Please pay at the venue.
Application:
https://forms.gle/TRdG8kiFAGYavWGk7
fukko (Hijiri Fujishima):
Singer-songwriter. FM87.0 RADIO MIX KYOTO personality. Transitioned from a childcare worker to an editor for the job information magazine "Travail" for women. Realized that researching women's ways of life was her life's work. Became freelance after retirement. Divorced at 33, raised her eldest daughter with ADHD, her second daughter who was prone to school refusal, and her third daughter with atopy and allergies, all while battling endometriosis. Remarried at 44. Diagnosed with ADHD, with mixed ASD traits. HSS-type HSP (highly sensitive person with high sensation seeking). Self-identified AC (Adult Child). Certified psychologist. Based on her own characteristics and interview experience with over 2,000 people, she is developing a "Self-Understanding Framework" that dynamically captures individual internal characteristics. Being a person with developmental trauma is the origin of her current research.