Yosano Akiko (与謝野 晶子 Yosano Akiko, 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 a poetry magazine Myōjō (Bright Star), and soon her talent on poetry flourished. She became one of its most important contributors. Its 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 the talent of Akiko bigger than his and determined to concentrate his energy to produce her talent on literature.

The Japanese politician Kaoru Yosano (Yosano Kaoru) is one of her grandsons.

Works

• Midare-gami (Tangled Hair) anthology of poetry
• Otouto ni Ataufu Uta A poem given for my brother
• Genji Monogatari A translation of Murasaki-shikibu's original into the modern Japanese

Resources

• Yosano Akiko; Beichman, Janine, Embracing the Firebird: Yosano Akiko and the Birth of the Female Voice in Modern Japanese Poetry, Honolulu Hawaii, University of Hawai'i Press, 2002
• Yosano Akiko, Tangled Hair: Selected Tanka from 'Midaregami' by Akiko Yosano, Boston, Cheng & Tsui Company, Sanford Goldstein and Seishi Shinoda, translators, 2002 [a revised edition based upon Tangled Hair published by Charles E. Tuttle 1987]
• Yosano Akiko; Hamill, Sam and Keiko Matsui Gibson, translators, River of Stars: Selected Poems of Yosano Akiko, Boston Shambhala, 1997

External links

• e-texts of Akiko's works at Aozora bunko