Akiko, Yosano

Akiko, Yosano 

Born Dec. 7, 1878; died May 29, 1942. Japanese poet.

Yosano began publishing her poetry in 1900. She was a member of the New Poetry literary society. The first collection of her poems, Rumpled Hair (1901), had a significant impact on Japanese poetry at the turn of the century. Opposing the dominant medieval morality, Yosano extolled free love and called for the emancipation of the personality. She succeeded in freeing tanka from traditional conventionalities. At the height of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05 she wrote the renowned antiwar poem Beloved, Do Not Give Your Life Away! (1904). She was the author of the poetry collections The Small Fan (1904), The Dancer (1906), and White Cherry Trees (1942), notable for their romantic tone and refinement of feeling.

WORKS

Yosano Akiko shu. Tokyo, 1954.
In Russian translation:
[“Stikhi.”] In the collection laponskaia poeziia. Moscow, 1956.

REFERENCES

Istoriia sovremennoi iaponskoi literatury. Moscow, 1961. Pages 343–46.
Matsuda Yosio. Yosano Akiko. Tokyo, 1961.

K. REKHO