小さな葦の葉の生活
The leading japanese female writer of the Meiji Era
Higuchi Ichiyo pseudonym of Higuchi Natsu, also called Higuchi Natsuko, poet and novelist was the most important Japanese woman writer and the first professional Japanese novelist since the beginning of the Meiji Era. Her works portrayed Tokyo's licensed leisure districts.
In her short life of twenty-four years, and during the one year and two months before her death, she left works that were highly relevant in the history of modern Japanese literature. There were twenty-two books, eight published in that fourteen-month period.
Writing about Japanese literature is not an easy task given the scarcity of Japanese books published in Brazil. A good part of my work is based on the dissertation Considerations on the work Nigorie (Cove of turbid waters) and its author Higuchi Ichiyô (1872 – 1896) by Professor Rika Hagino, presented to the Graduate Program in Japanese Language, Literature and culture of Department of Oriental Letters of the Faculty of Philosophy, Letters and Human Sciences of the University of São Paulo.
Tokugawa Shogunate (1603-1868) |
The Tokugawa Shogunate (1603-1868) was a feudal military regime that ruled Japan from Edo (present-day Tokyo). Led by the Tokugawa family, it centralized power, isolated the country from the West (Sakoku), and imposed a rigid social hierarchy. The samurai served the daimyo, who answered the shogun. The period brought stability, economic growth, and cultural flourishing, but it imposed resistance to modernization. In 1853, American ships forced the opening of Japan, generating internal crises. The Meiji Restoration of 1868 ended the shogunate and restored imperial power and began the modernization of Japan. |
The book Ôtsugomori (1894) opened the door to the writer's realistic phase. In this work, the characters that before her were described based on emotional elements, were portrayed through the direct description of the life of the woman who suffers from poverty, a reflection of the author's own experience. Ichiyo moves away from the imaginary world of previous works and uses real elements.
Ôtsugomori is a story with a well-structured beginning and end, without the classic air of faded ideas. Her texts are simpler, concise and with defined ideas. While she sought the reality of life, she drew on her own experiences.
The Meiji Era (1868–1912) |
The Meiji Era (1868–1912) marked the modernization of Japan after centuries of isolation under the Tokugawa shogunate. With the Meiji Restoration, the emperor regained power, initiating reforms that Westernized the country. There was rapid industrialization, the creation of a modern educational system, and the adoption of Western-inspired political institutions, culminating in the Constitution of 1889. Japan strengthened its military, defeating China (1895) and Russia (1905), and becoming a power. Despite progress, rapid modernization brought social inequalities. The Meiji Era transformed Japan from an agrarian fiefdom to an industrial powerhouse, shaping its destiny in the 20th century. |
From samurai pride to extreme poverty
Born in the Meiji Era with strong remnants of feudalism, at a time when a woman's socioeconomic position did not yet have the freedom of today, the writer subjected herself to the concepts of social virtue of the time, without rebelling against her reality and without calling for female freedom.
From a family in decline in the face of the new political and social regime of the Meiji Era, she had her situation worsened due to the debts left by her father. However, she did not lose the characteristic pride of women of that time of belonging to the samurai class. She entered high society due to her poetic practice, a traditional custom in female education.
The Fine Irony of LifeHiguchi Ichiyô suffered from lack of money during her short life. Considered one of the most important writers in Japanese literature, her portrait was adopted for the 5,000 yen note of the Bank of Japan on November 1, 2004. Ichiyô is the first woman to have her portrait based on a photograph used on a banknote in Japan. |
But none of that stopped her from living in extreme poverty. She experienced the reality of the lowest class in society sharing the feelings of underprivileged women.
Ichiyo was the first female writer of the time to so directly express the sadness of women abandoned by an unjust society. Her emotionally charged romanticism in depicting downtrodden characters, especially the complex psychology of women, made her the leading female writer of the Meiji Era, due to the purity she brought to her works.
The beginning of the realistic phase
When she moved to Hongô Maruyiama Fukuyamachô, an illegal prostitution zone in Tokyo, she had the opportunity to come into direct contact with the women of prostitution, either writing the signs in brothels or writing letters at the request of these illiterate women.
Takekurabe (Comparing Heights)
This short story depicts the transition from childhood to adulthood in a red-light district in Tokyo. The story follows a group of children, especially Midori, the sister of a courtesan, and Shōtarō, the son of a monk, who discover the social barriers that separate them. Higuchi describes with lyricism and melancholy the contrast between childhood innocence and the harsh realities of the adult world. The narrative evokes a sense of inevitability and loss, becoming one of the author's most representative works. Ichiyô sensitively expresses the dilemmas of a youth doomed to predetermined destinies. |
In 1890, in Tokyo alone, there were 4,747 officially recognized prostitutes, and this number grew every year. Although it was established by law that only prostitutes could become prostitutes from the age of eighteen, children were handed over by their parents. The money they received as a loan was later deducted from the prostitutes' work. Since they were unable to avoid debt, they lived in completely inhumane conditions. |
She used Saikaku Ihara's Gazoku-setchu style (a mixture of elegant and common language) to describe women's behavior, and the resulting sadness, during the Meiji period. While she shows compassion for them, she delivers a real and forceful description, using the use of dialogue to deftly describe the environments and character of her characters.
In August 1886, at the age of fourteen, Ichiyô enrolled in the waka (classical poems) course at the Haginoya school and stayed there for six years. Her experience on the course had a profound influence on her personal life and especially on her literary life. She studied waka and the classics with Utako Nakajima and romance novels with Nakara Tôsui.
At that time, Haginoya was a school attended by the wives and daughters of the former regime's wealthy classes, such as court nobles, senior advisers to the Tokugawa shogunate, former domain lords, Meiji era leaders, and military personnel. All her works are written in a style between the refined Heian aristocracy and the neoclassical characteristic of the mid-Edo Era (794-1185).
Natarai Tosui boosts Ichiyo's career
In 1891, she was introduced to the minor novelist, Nakarai Tōsui, who became an important inspiration for the literary diary she kept from 1891 to 1896, published as Wakabakage (In the Shadow of Spring Leaves).
Natarai Tôsui taught Ichiyô the first techniques of the novel. At the time, her writing was tied to her former training, both in content and technique. Ichiyo ignored Tōsui's main suggestion, namely that she uses colloquial language in her writing, and went on to polish her own distinctive classical prose style. But his influence on Ichiyo's works is quite noticeable.
She wrote with sensitivity primarily about women in old central Tokyo, at a time when traditional society was giving way to industrialization.
Nigorie (Muddy Waters)
In this short story, Ichiyō delves into the life of a prostitute who faces disappointments and emotional conflicts. Oriki, the protagonist, finds herself trapped between her social position and the feelings she has for a client, while also dealing with the hypocrisy of the men around her. With delicate but incisive prose, the author denounces the marginalization of women, and the lack of control women have over their own destinies. The dark atmosphere and melancholic characters make Nigorie an intense portrait of the difficulties women faced in Japanese society during the Meiji Era. |
Her works include Ōtsugomori (The Last Day of the Year – 1894) and her masterpiece, Takekurabe (Growing Up – 1895), a tender story of children growing up on the fringes of the pleasure district. Natarai Tôsui created the periodical Musashino, with the intention of making Ichiyô known. She first signed under her pseudonym Higuchi Ichiyo on Yamazakura's publication. That name was born out of her realization of wandering alone amid the storms of life, like a reed leaf flowing in a great river.
Later, she published the works Tamadasuki (Adornment to fasten the sleeve of the kimono), Samidare (The rain in the beginning of summer) and Wakarejimo (The frost of the eighty-first night counting from the beginning of spring). Through Tôsui, it made its first publication in fifteen successive parts in the Kaishin Shinbun newspaper.
Jūsan'ya (The Thirteenth Night)
Oseki is an unhappy woman trapped in an abusive marriage with a cruel and arrogant man. She visits her parents on the eve of the thirteenth night of the lunar calendar to ask for permission to divorce but is persuaded to stay in the marriage for the sake of her son. With a critical look at the role of women in society, Ichiyō reveals the lack of options for women, tied to family duty and personal unhappiness. The story is moving for its sensitivity and realism in exposing the silent pain of women sacrificed in the name of social conventions. |
Master and only love
Tôsui would be her first and only love. However, a scandal about her relationship with him spread (although both were unmarried, the customs of the time did not approve of such associations between a man and a woman not intending to marry). Because of this she severed relations with Tôsui.
After the relationship ended, she published Umoregi (Buried Wood), an idealistic novel in the style of Rohan Koda, completely different from her previous works. Tôsui's departure was an event of deep sadness, and this can be observed in Diary of her: I cannot shed even tears, such is my sadness.
In 1896, when Takekurabe was published in full in Bungei Kurabu, it gained wide acclaim from Ogai Mori, Rohan Koda, and others; Ogai Mori highly praised Ichiyo in Mezamashigusa, and many Bungakukai members began to visit her.
In May of the same year, she published Warekara (Of Myself), and Tsuzoku Shokanbun (Folk Epistle) in Nichiyo Hyakka Zensho (The Daily Encyclopedia). Ichiyo had advanced tuberculosis, and when she was diagnosed in August, she was deemed hopeless.
All of Higuchi Ichiyo's works have been translated into English. Unfortunately, only one is in Portuguese: Wakaremichi (A farewell), edited by USP. See: Tales from the Meiji Era, Geny Wakisaka, organized by the Center for Japanese Studies at USP.
Main works of Higuchi Ichiyô
Higuchi Ichiyō died young and did not publish books in the traditional format, but he left a collection of short stories and diaries that were collected posthumously. Among his major works are: ֎ Takekurabe (たけくらべ, Comparing Heights) – 1895 ֎ Nigorie (にごりえ, Muddy Waters) – 1895 ֎ Jūsan'ya (十三夜, The Thirteenth Night) – 1895 ֎ Umoregi (埋れ木, Buried Wood) – 1892 ֎ Yamizakura (闇桜, Cherry Tree in the Dark) – 1892 ֎ Otsugomori (大つごもり, On New Year's Eve) – 1894 ֎ Wakaremichi (わかれ道, The Dividing Paths) – 1894 ֎ Diary of Higuchi Ichiyō (Ichiyō nikki, 一葉日記) – Personal reflections and accounts of his life. ֎ Ichiyō Zenshū (一葉全集, Complete Works of Ichiyō). Works collected in several collections published after his death. |
Premature death
In her short existence Ichiyo went from being the daughter of a samurai family to extreme poverty, living with the upper strata of society and with the socially excluded strata. She appreciated literature as an art that later became her livelihood. After her death, her sister Kuni played a key role in the young writer's existence until the present day. Against her sister's request that her Diaries be burned shortly after her death, Kuni preserved all Ichiyo's works and personal effects.
She died of pulmonary tuberculosis at the age of twenty-four. She started the Diaries at the age of fifteen, in January 1887 and finished in July 1896. The book has a total of forty items. It is possible to follow with it the path that Ichiyo trod for approximately six years, the period from the passage from unknown writer to becoming famous.
Ichiyo's life as a novelist lasted just over fourteen months. In 1897, the year after her death, Ichiyo Zenshu (The complete collection of Ichiyo's works) and Kotei Ichiyo Zenshu (The complete revised collection of Ichiyo's works) were published.
The life of a small reed leaf
Higuchi Ichiyo was born on March 25, 1872 (May 2 by the current calendar), five years after the beginning of the Meiji Era (1868-1912) and the move from the military government's capital Edo to Tokyo. He was born in the official residence of employees of the Tokyo Prefecture.
Umoregi (Buried Wood)
In this short story, Higuchi Ichiyō presents the story of a young orphan who works as a housekeeper for a wealthy family. Submissive and resigned, she strives to please her employers but is never truly accepted. The title symbolizes her dim existence, like buried wood that will never burn into a bright flame. The narrative reveals the social rigidity and the impossibility of advancement for those born into unfavorable conditions. With a poetic and melancholic style, Ichiyō builds a story of exclusion and resignation, denouncing the insurmountable barriers that separated social classes in Japanese society at the time. |
Her father Higuchi Noriyoshi (1830-1889) and mother Taki (1834-1898) came from a decadent samurai family. Although she was an interested student, she had to drop out of school at the age of eleven, as determined by her mother, who believed that her daughter should start preparing to marry in the future. At the age of fourteen, she entered the waka (traditional poem) course in Haginoya, having
contact with classical literature, her literary base.
Her father died when she was eighteen, a victim of pulmonary tuberculosis. As it was not possible to depend on her two older brothers, she worked as a breadwinner, running a tiny sale of household items and sweets. Meanwhile, she first published traditional Japanese-style poems and later novels.
Despite the differences in nationality and culture, I see some identification between Higuchi Ichiyo and the Brazilian female writer Carolina Maria de Jesus. Both lived in extreme poverty, left school early and had to fight hard for survival. However, none of this has shaken the vital need to write as an inner compensation for the lives they have led.
Both wrote their diaries that have reached the present time as artistic and literary documents and as testimonies of two women who overcame adversity with the only weapon the ability to put feelings and emotions on paper and to conduct their purposes, even during adversities ֎
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