Yosano Akiko
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Yosano Akiko (与謝野 晶子 December 7, 1878 - May 29, 1942) was a Japanese author and poet.
She was born a daughter of a rich merchant in Sakai, Osaka. When she was a high school student, she began to subscribe to the poetry magazine Myōjō (Bright Star), and her poetry talent soon flourished - she became one of its most important contributors. Myōjō's editor, Yosano Tekkan taught her poetry and sometimes visited her in Sakai.
Although Tekkan was married, the two authors fell in love and they started a new life in the suburb of Tokyo. Later, Tekkan and Akiko married legally and she had many children. Tekkan was also a poet, but he realized that Akiko's abilities were greater than his and he decided to concentrate his energies on helping her.
The Japanese politician Kaoru Yosano (Yosano Kaoru) is one of her grandsons.
[edit] Works
- Midaregami (みだれ髪, Tangled Hair) her first collection of poetry
- Kimi Shinitamou koto nakare (君死にたまふこと勿れ, Thou Shalt Not Die) poem to her brother during Russo-Japanese War
- Genji Monogatari (The Tale of Genji) Modern Japanese translation of Murasaki-shikibu's 11th century epic novel
[edit] Resources
- Beichman, Janine, Embracing the Firebird: Yosano Akiko and the Birth of the Female Voice in Modern Japanese Poetry, University of Hawai'i Press, Honolulu, 2002.
- Yosano Akiko, Tangled Hair: Selected Tanka from 'Midaregami', translated by Sanford Goldstein and Seishi Shinoda, Cheng & Tsui Company, Boston, 2002 [a revised edition based upon Tangled Hair published by Charles E. Tuttle 1987]
- Yosano Akiko, River of Stars: Selected Poems of Yosano Akiko, translated by Sam Hamill and Keiko Matsui Gibson, Shambhala, Boston, 1997.
