Higuchi Ichiyō

Higuchi Ichiyō (born May 2, 1872, Tokyo—died Nov. 23, 1896, Tokyo) was a poet and novelist, the most important Japanese woman writer of her period, whose characteristic works dealt with the licensed pleasure quarters of Tokyo.

She had a comfortable childhood as the daughter of a low-ranking government employee. Upon the death of her father in 1889, however, she suddenly found herself the sole support of her mother and younger sister, and she lived in hardship and poverty until her own death at the age of 24. Ichiyō had studied classical literature at a relatively well-known poetry school for several years when the success of a classmate in publishing fiction encouraged her to try writing as a means of earning a living.

In 1891 she was introduced to a minor novelist, Nakarai Tōsui, who became an important inspiration for the literary diary that she kept from 1891 to 1896, published as Wakabakage (“In the Shade of Spring Leaves”). Ichiyō ignored Tōsui’s chief suggestion, namely that she use colloquial language in her writing, and proceeded to polish her own distinctive classical prose style. She wrote with sensitivity chiefly of the women of the old Tokyo downtown area, at a time when traditional society was giving way to industrialization. Her works include Ōtsugomori (1894; The Last Day of the Year) and her masterpiece, Takekurabe (1895; Growing Up), a delicate story of children being reared on the fringes of the pleasure district.