Born: 2 May 1872, Japan
Died: 23 November 1896
Country most active: Japan
Also known as: 樋口一葉, Higuchi Ichiyō, Natsuko Higuchi, 樋口夏子, Higuchi Natsuko
Meiji Period writer Ichiyō Higuchi was the first woman in Japan to write modern literature professionally, particularly short stories and poetry, as well as extensive diary accounts.
Born Natsuko Higuchi, she grew up the daughter of a samurai and began studying waka poetry and literature in 1886 at private school run by the female poet Utako Nakajima. Her passion for writing led her to keep a diary from 1891 until her death five years later, filling hundreds of pages. In it, she detailed feeling intimidated by her upper-class schoolmates, her family’s increasingly poor financial circumstances and, despite her outward timidity, her own internal assertiveness, as well as her opinions on literary art and others’ views of her own work.
Higuchi’s father died in 1889, two years after the death of her oldest brother. Her father’s failed business investments left them in financial straits, and her fiancé broke off their engagement. At her teacher’s suggestion, Higuchi became an apprentice in Haginoya, but left within a few months after discovering how much of her “apprenticeship” was household chores.
She, her mother and younger sister Kuniko moved the Hongō district and took up sewing and laundry work. Inspired by the success of her classmate Kaho Miyake’s 1888 novel Yabu no uguisu, Higuchi decided to pursue a career as a novelist to support the family.
In 1891, she met an advisor, Tosui Nakarai, not realising that he wrote popular literature, rather than the more serious genres she was interested in. She also fell in love with him, but he treated her as a younger sister; romantic pain would become a recurring theme in her work.
Her literary debut under the pen name Ichiyō Higuchi came in March 1892 with the publication of the story Yamizakura (“Flowers at Dusk”) in the first issue of the magazine Musashino. Her early work (1892-94) was heavily influenced by Heian poetry; Higuchi felt the need to show her classical training. With thin plots, little character development and an excess of sentiment, they present a marked contrast to her diary entries of the time.
Yet her work evolved quickly, with several of her trademark themes beginning to appear, such as the ambition and cruelty of the Meiji middle class and love triangles between a lonely, beautiful, young orphan woman, a handsome man who has abandoned her and a desperate lower-class man who falls in love with her.
In November and December 1892, just nine months after she began focusing on writing, her story, Umoregi (“In Obscurity”) was published to acclaim in the prestigious journal Miyako no hana. The following year, Higuchi and her family moved to a poorer neighborhood near Tokyo’s red-light district Yoshiwara.
Her later stories from 1894-96 reflected her experiences living near the red-light district and concerns about women’s issues. They also showed the influence of the work of 17th-century writer Ihara Saikaku, who saw lower-class characters as worthy of literary attention. To this, Higuchi added a particular awareness of and sensitivity toward suffering. Works from this time included Ōtsugomori (On the Last Day of the Year), Nigorie (Troubled Waters), Jūsan’ya (The Thirteenth Night), Takekurabe (“Comparing Heights”) and Wakaremichi (Separate Ways).
These stories lead to great fame throughout the Tokyo literary scene, acclaiming her traditional style, evoking the past and leading to her being called “the last woman of the old Meiji.” She was frequently visited at home by other writers, students, admirers, critics, editors and others. These constant interruptions, combined with headaches, led her to stop writing.
When she died of tuberculosis at age 24, Higuchi left behind 21 short stories, nearly 4,000 poems, numerous essays and an extensive diary. Higuchi’s stories have been translated into different languages; the first English translation was in 1903, Ōtsugomori, as The Last Day of the Year, by Tei Fujio. In 1981, nine of her stories appeared with new translations provided by Robert Lyons Danly. Some stories have also been translated from classical Japanese into modern Japanese, including Hiromi Itō’s translation of Nigorie or Fumiko Enchi’s translation of Takekurabe.
Her stories Ōtsugomori, Nigorie, Jūsan’ya and Takekurabe have been adapted for film and television multiple times, most notably An Inlet of Muddy Water (1953) and Takekurabe (1955).
In fall 2004, Higuchi’s portrait was added to the 5000 yen banknote, making her the third woman on a Japanese banknote, after Empress Jingū in 1881 and Murasaki Shikibu in 2000.
The biopic Higuchi Ichiyō was released in 1939, starring Isuzu Yamada and directed by Kyotaro Namiki, and a play about her life, Zutsuu katakori Higuchi Ichiyō, by Hisashi Inoue, was first performed in 1984.