Yosano Akiko and *Midaregami* — Sensuality and Passion of the Myōjō School, Another Road of Tanka Reform

Yosano Akiko’s Position

Yosano Akiko (1878-1942) was a Meiji to Shōwa era woman poet and poet. With her 1901 Midaregami, she shocked the Japanese poetry scene, and as the core of the Myōjō school she established a romantic tanka opposite to Shiki’s shasei tanka.

Over her life she left an enormous body of work: more than 50,000 poems, more than 800 poems in free verse, fairy tales, essays, and classical translations (a modern-language translation of The Tale of Genji, etc.). A figure symbolic of the liberation and modernization of women in the Meiji and Taishō eras.

Life

Background — Daughter of a Sakai Confectioner

• December 7, 1878, born to the Sakai (Osaka) sweets shop Surugaya as the third daughter
• Real name Hō Shiyō (Hō Shō)
• Grew up gaining the accomplishments of waka, classics, and Chinese texts as a merchant’s daughter
• After graduating from Sakai Women’s School, helped in the family business while self-studying the classics (The Tale of Genji, Kokin Wakashū)

Awakening to Tanka (1898-1900)

Around age 20, she joined the Kansai Youth Literary Society in Osaka. There she heard a lecture by Yosano Tekkan (then 25, already married), and began submitting to his journal Myōjō (founded April 1900).

An exchange of letters with Tekkan began and grew into a passionate love. Tekkan already had a wife Takino, but Akiko abandoned her family home in Sakai and went to Tokyo in 1901 to live with Tekkan.

Publication of Midaregami and Marriage (1901)

In August Meiji 34 (1901), at 22, immediately after coming to Tokyo, Akiko published the tanka collection Midaregami. Contains 399 poems. The cover was designed by Fujishima Takeji (an Art Nouveau female figure) — the publication itself, including the situation, was epochal.

In October the same year, Tekkan and Akiko formally married. Tekkan divorced his former wife. They married amid public denunciation, but the two remained together for life.

The Rest of Her Life (1901-1942)

• 1904, published the poem “Kimi shinitamou koto nakare” (an anti-war poem addressed to her brother serving in the Russo-Japanese War), sparking great controversy
• 1908, Myōjō ceased publication (financial troubles); the Yosanos went to Paris (1912-1914)
• Raised 11 children while continuing to write
• 1932, completed her modern-language translation of The Tale of Genji (a 14-year labor)
• 1935, her husband Tekkan died
• May 29, 1942, died at 63

Midaregami — The Revolution of Tanka

Midaregami (1901) is the first tanka collection of 22-year-old Akiko. A shocking work confronting “the female sensuality, passion, body” as the subject of tanka — themes 1000 years of waka since the Heian era had not treated.

Representative Poem 1: Yawa Hada no (Midaregami, vol. 1)

“Yawa hada no / atsuki chishio ni / fure mo mide / sabishikarazuya / michi wo toku kimi”

• yawa hada — soft skin
• atsuki chishio — hot blood
• fure mo mide — without touching, without seeing
• sabishikarazuya — are you not lonely?
• michi wo toku kimi — you who preach the (Buddhist or Confucian) Way

“You who preach the (ascetic) Way and do not touch, do not see my soft skin and hot blood — are you not lonely?” — a poem in which a woman speaks a sexual invitation directly to a man. Shocking to the moral outlook of the Meiji era.

Various views on the addressee: a monk, a scholar, or (the ascetic) Tekkan himself. Whatever, it presented a female image directly opposite to the Meiji ideal of the “good wife and wise mother.”

Representative Poem 2: Disheveled Hair (title poem of Midaregami)

“Sono ko hatachi / kushi ni nagaruru / kuro-kami no / ogori no haru no / utsukushiki kana”

• sono ko hatachi — that girl is twenty
• kushi ni nagaruru kuro-kami — the black hair through which the comb flows
• ogori no haru — the pride of spring (=the pride of youth)
• utsukushiki kana — how beautiful

A poem praising the black hair, youth, and pride of a young woman. “Ogori” is not negative; it is affirmation of the brilliance of youth. Unlike the court-style waka on “women’s hair” since the Heian, this is a modern self-affirmation.

Representative Poem 3: Denial of Gods and Buddhas (Midaregami)

“E-higasa ni / sekaruru koi zo / kono yoiwa ni / mandara wo yaku / ware wo yuruse yo”

• e-higasa ni sekaruru koi — a love hidden behind a picture parasol
• mandara wo yaku — burn the (Buddhist) mandala
• ware wo yuruse yo — forgive me

A powerful expression of burning a Buddhist mandala for love. A challenge to Meiji religious common sense. The structure of a woman denying Buddhism and choosing love is revolutionary.

Representative Poem 4: Confession of Passion (Midaregami)

“Nanitonaku / kimi ni mataruru / kokochi shite / ideshi hanano no / yūzukuyo kana”

• nanitonaku — somehow
• kimi ni mataruru kokochi shite — feeling as if awaited by you
• ideshi hanano — the flower-field I went out to
• yūzukuyo — the evening moonlit night

“Feeling as if you awaited me, I went out to the flower field on a moonlit evening” — not direct sensuality, but delicately drawing the pained expectation for a lover. Another side of Akiko’s love poem.

Significance of Midaregami

• For the first time in 1000 years, a woman sang her own sensuality in tanka (since Izumi Shikibu of the Heian)
• A revolt against the Meiji ideal of the “good wife and wise mother”
• Self-affirmation of youth, passion, and beauty
• Expansion of the subject of tanka from the technique-rich sighs of love to the living body and feeling

This was a tanka revolution from an entirely different road from Shiki’s “shasei.” The late-Meiji poetry scene was split into the Shiki side (shasei) and the Myōjō side (romantic).

The Myōjō School — Yosano Tekkan and Myōjō

Yosano Tekkan (1873-1935) was from a low-ranking Shinto priest family in Kyoto. In 1899 he formed the New Poetry Society in Tokyo and founded the literary journal Myōjō in 1900. It became the biggest base of romantic literature of the late Meiji era.

Claims of Myōjō

• Symbolism and romanticism — influence of the French symbolists (Verlaine, Mallarmé)
• Tanka = extension of new-verse poetry — while preserving the fixed form, an internal expression in the manner of new-verse poetry
• Lyricism, passion, freedom
• Raising of “new poets” (=modern poets)

Main Members of the Myōjō School

• Yosano Tekkan — head
• Yosano Akiko — central poet
• Ishikawa Takuboku (1886-1912) — submitted to Myōjō, later became independent (next article)
• Kitahara Hakushū (1885-1942) — later became an independent symbolist poet
• Yoshii Isamu (1886-1960) — passionate tanka
• Chino Masako (1880-1946) — woman poet
• Yamakawa Tomiko (1879-1909) — a woman poet who died young

End of Myōjō (1908)

Myōjō dominated the poetry world of the late Meiji era from 1900 to 1908, but ended in 1908 due to financial trouble. After that, its members took different roads.

“Kimi shinitamou koto nakare” (1904) — Anti-War Poem

In September Meiji 37 (1904), in the midst of the Russo-Japanese War, Akiko published in Myōjō the long poem “Kimi shinitamou koto nakare” (Do not, my brother, die). An anti-war poem addressed to her brother Chūzaburō, then in service at the siege of Lüshun (Port Arthur).

Opening

“Aa, otōto yo, / kimi wo naku, / kimi shinitamou koto nakare, / sue ni umareshi kimi nareba / oya no nasake wa masarishi mo, / oya wa yaiba wo nigirasete / hito wo korose to oshieshi ya? / hito wo koroshite shine yo tote / niju-yon made wo sodateshi ya?”

“Ah, my brother, I weep for you. My brother, do not die. Because you were born last, our parents cherished you the more. Did our parents make you grip a blade and teach you to kill? Did they raise you to twenty-four so that you would kill and die?”

A long poem in which a woman publicly opposed the state war, saying “do not let my brother die.” In the Japanese society of the time (formation of the nation-state, praise of war), it drew fierce denunciation.

Controversy

The poet Ōmachi Keigetsu harshly criticized it as “words of a treasonous subject.” Akiko wrote replies and the debate continued for months. But she did not yield and maintained her anti-war stance afterward.

Significance

• A rare case of a Meiji woman openly opposing state discourse
• Showed that literature can be a means of political criticism
• One origin of modern Japanese anti-war literature
• (However, Akiko herself wrote war poems in the later Shōwa era, showing a contradiction; she cannot be called a simple pacifist)

Later Life of Akiko and Tekkan

Activities of the Yosanos after the end of Myōjō:

Studying in Paris (1912-1914)

In 1912, her husband Tekkan went to Paris, arranged by Mori Ōgai. Akiko followed. Living in Paris, Berlin, and London, they encountered Impressionist painting and symbolist literature. Influence appears in works after return.

Educational Activity

In 1921, she took part in founding Bunka Gakuin (with Nishimura Isaku and others). Devoted passion to women’s education and free education. In the Shōwa era she became well known as an educator too.

Modern Translation of The Tale of Genji (1932)

Akiko worked from her 20s on a modern-language translation of The Tale of Genji, and in 1932 completed the Shinshin’yaku Genji Monogatari in 14 years. One of the three great modern translations alongside Tanizaki Jun’ichirō (1939-) and Enchi Fumiko (1972-).

Later Years

In 1935 her husband Tekkan died; after that she continued writing, but with the outbreak of the Pacific War she died in May 1942 at 63. She composed poems until just before her death.

The Change in Akiko’s Style

Midaregami Period (1900-1905)

Direct expression of sensuality, passion, and body. Backed by her youth from 22 to 27 and her passionate love with Tekkan.

Koigoromo, Maihime Period (1905-1920)

Amid marriage, childbirth, and childrearing, the themes of household, motherhood, life increase. But the emotion of romanticism is preserved.

Late Period (1920-1942)

Leaning toward classics (The Tale of Genji), educational and social activity; in wartime Shōwa she also writes poems complying with national policy (a complex late-life side).

Akiko’s Significance

1. Symbol of the Liberation of Women

Akiko embodied the liberation of women in the Meiji and Taishō eras. A merchant’s daughter left her family home to come to Tokyo, married a married man, raised 11 children while composing 50,000 poems, and became an educator — this life itself is revolutionary.

2. Establishment of Romantic Tanka

She established another modern tanka against Shiki’s shasei tanka. This completes the two great lineages of modern tanka (shasei vs. romantic).

3. The Lineage of Women Poets

Akiko stands between Edo-era women poets (Chiyojo and others) and Shōwa-era women poets (Mitsuhashi Takajo, Hashimoto Takako, Nakamura Teijo, etc.). She showed the modern significance of a woman writing tanka.

4. Forerunner of Anti-War Literature

“Kimi shinitamou koto nakare” is the origin — with both light and shadow — of Shōwa war literature (including Akiko’s own late war poems). The archetype of social-critical literature by women.

Toward the Next Article

Another giant of the Myōjō school is Ishikawa Takuboku (1886-1912). Died young at 26, but with his three-line tanka brought a new form to modern tanka, including “Tawamure ni / haha wo seoite / sono amari / karoki ni nakite / san-po ayumazu” — the origin of the “seikatsu-ha” (life-school) tanka written in poverty and illness. The next article traces Ishikawa Takuboku and Ichiaku no Suna.