Yosano Akiko and The Tale of Genji

by G.G. Rowley

Yosano Akiko (1878-1942) has long been recognized as one of the most important literary figures of prewar Japan. Hitherto she has been renowned principally for the passion of her early poetry and for her contributions to twentieth-century debates about women. This emphasis obscures a major part of her career, which was devoted to work on the Japanese classics and, in particular, the great Heian-period text The Tale of Genji. Akiko herself felt that Genji was the bedrock upon which her entire literary career was built, and her bibliography shows a steadily increasing amount of time devoted to projects related to the tale. This study traces for the first time the full range of Akiko's involvement with The Tale of Genji. Genji provided Akiko with her conception of herself as a writer and inspired many of her most significant literary projects. She, in turn, refurbished the tale as a modern novel, pioneered some of the most promising avenues of modern academic research on Genji, and, to a great extent, gave the text the prominence it now enjoys as a translated classic. Through her work Genji became, in fact as well as in name, an exemplum of that most modern of literary genres, the novel. In delineating this important aspect of Akiko's life and her bibliography, this study aims to show that facile descriptions of Akiko as a "poetess of passion" or "new woman" will no longer suffice.

Genres: Biography, Japan

222 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2000

About the author

One of the many pleasures of a lifetime spent in research, teaching, and writing is never needing an excuse to sit down with a good book. My Goodreads lists highlight some of the books that I've most enjoyed reading over the past several years, together with a few favourites from as far back as my Australian childhood.

Reviews

[sanaz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm amazed and delighted by the scholarship of Rowley. Akikio is one of modern women I admire and her connection to ancient Japanese literature has been the point of curiosity for me. Rowley has studied this connection masterfully and has showed how Akiko has emerged not just as a passionate poet but as a passionate and prolific reader/ scholar/ writer. I myself find a strong connection to Genji Monogatari and how this masterpiece has changed and inspired another woman serves me as a guiding star. I wish there were more scholarship and ideas about Akiko and Genji in English.

[Susan Ferguson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read The Tale of Genji several years ago and found it quite interesting and good - unfortunately I don’t remember the translator. But this is about Yosano Akiko who first read Genji when she was about 12snd read it many times since. Genji is considered a classic of Japanese literature. Akiko translated it from classic, old Japanese into modern Japanese. She translated it twice, the second time more rigorously. The first translation was to make the classic accessible to modern Japanese readers. She also wrote the definitive biography of Murasaki Shikibu. This is about her relationship to the book and the deep understanding she came to because of reading it as a child. Most studies of Genji were made by scholars who first read it as adults when they studied it. Akiko herself studied it further as an adult and taught courses on it. She is also well-known for her poetry.