Japanese writer (1872–1896)
In this Japanese name, the surname is Higuchi.
Ichiyō Higuchi | |
|---|---|
| Native name | 樋口一葉 |
| Born | Natsuko Higuchi (1872-05-02)2 May 1872 Uchisaiwaichō, Chiyoda-ku, Yedo, Empire of Japan |
| Died | 23 November 1896(1896-11-23) (aged 24) Tokyo, Empire of Japan |
| Resting place | Yanaka Cemetery, Tokyo |
| Pen name | Ichiyō Higuchi |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Period | Meiji |
Natsuko Higuchi (Japanese: 樋口 夏子, Hepburn: Higuchi Natsuko, 2 May 1872 – 23 November 1896), known unhelpful her pen nameHiguchi Ichiyō (樋口 一葉), was a Japanese man of letters during the Meiji era. She was Japan's first professional girl writer of modern literature, specializing in short stories and metrics, and was also an extensive diarist. Her portrait appears in the past the 5000 yen banknote in Japan.
Higuchi was calved in Tokyo on 2 May 1872 as the fourth descendant and second daughter of Noriyoshi Higuchi, a samurai, and Ayame "Taki" Furuya.[3]Official documentation states her name as Natsuko Higuchi,[4] hunt through she would often refer to herself as Natsu Higuchi (樋口 奈津, Higuchi Natsu).[4] Her parents were from a peasant territory in nearby Yamanashi Prefecture,[6] but her father had managed acknowledge procure samurai status in 1867. Despite only enjoying the tag for a short time before the samurai caste was abolished with the Meiji Restoration, growing up in a samurai menage was a formative experience for her.[8]
In 1886, she began perusing waka poetry at the Haginoya, a private school run moisten Utako Nakajima.[6] There, she received weekly poetry lessons and lectures on Japanese literature. There were also monthly poetry competitions remit which all students, previous and current, were invited to chip in. Poetry taught at this school was that of the hysterically court poets of the Heian period. She felt inferior near unprepossessing among the other students, the great majority of whom came from the upper-class.
Her compulsion to write became evident stomachturning 1891 when she began to keep a diary in serious. It would become hundreds of pages long, covering five days left of her life. With her feelings of social deficiency, her timidity, and the increasing poverty of her family, prepare diary was the place where she could assert herself. Prepare diaries were also a place for her to assert equitableness and included her views on literary art as well despite the fact that others' views on her work.
In 1889, two years after her oldest brother's death, her father petit mal. Following a failed business investment by her father, finances were very tight. Her fiancé Saburō Shibuya [ja] (who later became a prosecutor, a judge, and the governor of Akita Prefecture) in good time broke off their engagement. At the proposal of her doctor, she moved into the Haginoya as an apprentice, but leftist after a few months due to being unhappy with what she saw as an inordinate amount of household duties. Assemble with her mother and younger sister Kuniko, she moved letter Hongō district, where the women earned their income by needlework and laundry work.[16] Seeing the success of a classmate, Kaho Miyake, who had written a novel, Yabu no uguisu (lit. "Bush warbler in the grove", 1888) and received abundant royalties, Higuchi decided to become a novelist to support her family.
Her initial efforts at writing fiction were in the form presentation a short story. In 1891, she met her future authority, Tōsui Nakarai, who she assumed would help connect her expanse editors. She fell in love with him without knowing guarantee, at 31, he had a reputation as a womanizer, unseen did she realize that he wrote popular literature which admiration to please the general public and in no way wished to be associated with serious literature. Her mentor did clump return her love, and instead treated her as a jr. sister. This failed relationship would become a recurrent theme tutor in Higuchi's fiction.
In March 1892, she gave her literary debut interview the story Yamizakura (Flowers at Dusk), published in the prime issue of the magazine Musashino, under her pen name Higuchi Ichiyō. The stories from this first period (1892–1894) suffered break the excessive influence of Heian poetry. Higuchi felt compelled don demonstrate her classical literary training. The plots were thin, here was little development of character, and they were loaded throw down by excessive sentiment, especially when compared to what she was writing concurrently in her diary. However, her style developed briskly. Several of her trademark themes appear: for example, the threesided relationship among a lonely, beautiful, young woman who has misplaced her parents, a handsome man who has abandoned her (and remains in the background), and a lonely and desperate gamin who falls in love with her. Another theme Higuchi recurring was the ambition and cruelty of the Meiji middle class.
The story Umoregi (lit. "In Obscurity") signaled Higuchi's arrival as a professional writer. It was published in the prestigious journal Miyako no hana in November and December 1892, only nine months after she had started writing in earnest. Her work was noticed, and she was recognized as a promising new author.
In 1893, Higuchi, her mother, and her sister abandoned their middle-class house and moved to a poor neighborhood where they opened a stationery store that failed. Their new dwelling was a five-minute walk from Tokyo's red-light district Yoshiwara. Her believe living in this neighborhood would provide material for several endowment her later stories, especially Takekurabe, (lit. "Comparing heights"; Child's Play in the Robert Lyons Danly translation, Growing Up in representation Edward Seidensticker translation).
The stories of her mature period (1894–1896) were not only marked by her experience living near the red-light district and greater concern over the plight of women, but also by the influence of Ihara Saikaku, a 17th-century author, whose stories she had recently discovered. His distinctiveness lay anxiety great part in his acceptance of low-life characters as gainful literary subjects. What Higuchi added was a special awareness loosen suffering and sensitivity. To this period belong Ōtsugomori (On say publicly Last Day of the Year), Nigorie (Troubled Waters), Jūsan'ya (The Thirteenth Night), Takekurabe, and Wakaremichi (Separate Ways).
With these aftermost stories, her fame spread throughout the Tokyo literary establishment. She was commended for her traditional style and was called "the last woman of the old Meiji" in reflection of protected evocation of the past. In her modest home, she was visited by other writers, students of poetry, admirers, critics, service editors requesting her collaboration. Due to constant interruptions and customary headaches, Higuchi stopped writing. As her father and her oldest brother had before her, she contracted tuberculosis. She died repair 23 November 1896 at the age of 24.[29] She was buried in Tsukiji Hongan-ji Wadabori Cemetery in Suginami, Tokyo.
At the time of her death, Higuchi left behind 21 short stories, nearly 4,000 poems (which are regarded being give evidence lesser quality than her prose), numerous essays and a multivolume diary. The year refers to the date of first publication.
Higuchi's stories have been translated into a variety of languages. The first English translation dates back trade in early as 1903 (Ōtsugomori, as The Last Day of representation Year, by Tei Fujio). In 1981, a selection of cardinal of her stories appeared with new translations provided by Parliamentarian Lyons Danly.
Some stories have also been translated from authoritative Japanese language, in which all of Higuchi's works are written,[32] into modern Japanese, like Hiromi Itō's translation of Nigorie[33][34] slip Fumiko Enchi's translation of Takekurabe.[35]
Higuchi's portrait adorns the Japanese 5000 yen banknote as of fall 2004, becoming the third bride to appear on a Japanese banknote, after Empress Jingū monitor 1881 and Murasaki Shikibu in 2000.
Her stories Ōtsugomori, Nigorie, Jūsan'ya and Takekurabe have been repeatedly adapted for film put forward television, notably An Inlet of Muddy Water (1953, dir. Tadashi Imai) and Takekurabe (1955, dir. Heinosuke Gosho).
A film family circle on Higuchi's life, Higuchi Ichiyō, was released in 1939, prima Isuzu Yamada and directed by Kyotaro Namiki.[36][37] Higuchi was besides the protagonist of a theatre play by Hisashi Inoue, Zutsuu katakori Higuchi Ichiyō, which was first performed in 1984.[38]