Ichiyō Higuchi

• Native Name — 樋口一葉 • Pen Name — Ichiyō Higuchi • Birth Name — Natsuko Higuchi • Born — 2 May 1872 • Birthplace — Uchisaiwaichō, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Empire of Japan • Died — 23 November 1896 • Place of death — Tokyo, Empire of Japan • Resting Place — Tsukiji Hongan-ji Wadabori Cemetery, Suginami, Tokyo • Occupation — Writer • Period — Meiji 2 May 1872 – 23 November 1896, known by her pen name Higuchi Ichiyō, was a Japanese writer during the Meiji era. She was Japan's first professional woman writer of modern literature, specializing in short stories and poetry, and was also an extensive diarist. Her portrait was used on the 5000 yen banknote in Japan.

Higuchi was born in Tokyo on 2 May 1872 as the fourth child and second daughter of Noriyoshi Higuchi, a samurai, and Ayame "Taki" Furuya. Official documentation states her name as Natsuko Higuchi, though she would often refer to herself as Natsu Higuchi. Her parents were from a peasant community in nearby Yamanashi Prefecture, but her father had managed to procure samurai status in 1867. Despite only enjoying the position for a short time before the samurai caste was abolished with the Meiji Restoration, growing up in a samurai household was a formative experience for her. In 1886, she began studying waka poetry at the Haginoya, a private school run by Utako Nakajima. There, she received weekly poetry lessons and lectures on Japanese literature. There were also monthly poetry competitions in which all students, previous and current, were invited to participate. Poetry taught at this school was that of the conservative court poets of the Heian period. She felt inferior and unprepossessing among the other students, the great majority of whom came from the upper-class. Her compulsion to write became evident by 1891 when she began to keep a diary in earnest. It would become hundreds of pages long, covering five years left of her life. With her feelings of social inferiority, her timidity, and the increasing poverty of her family, her diary was the place where she could assert herself. Her diaries were also a place for her to assert objectivity and included her views on literary art as well as others' views on her work.

• Illustration — Monument of Higuchi Ichiyō in her hometown at the Jiunji or Jiun-ji Temple of Koshu • Illustration — Higuchi on the 5,000 yen bill, established on 1 November 2004. 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 experience living in this neighborhood would provide material for several of her later stories, especially Takekurabe, (lit. "Comparing heights"; Child's Play in the Robert Lyons Danly translation, Growing Up in the 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 writer, whose stories she had recently discovered. His distinctiveness lay in great part in his acceptance of low-life characters as worthwhile literary subjects. What Higuchi added was a special awareness of suffering and sensitivity. To this period belong Ōtsugomori (On the Last Day of the Year), Nigorie (Troubled Waters), Jūsan'ya (The Thirteenth Night), Takekurabe, and Wakaremichi (Separate Ways). With these last 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 her evocation of the past. In her modest home, she was visited by other writers, students of poetry, admirers, critics, and editors requesting her collaboration. Due to constant interruptions and frequent headaches, Higuchi stopped writing. As her father and her oldest brother had before her, she contracted tuberculosis. She died on 23 November 1896 at the age of 24. 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 of lesser quality than her prose), numerous essays and a multivolume diary. The year refers to the date of first publication.

• 1892: Yamizakura (闇桜, Flowers at Dusk) • 1892: Wakarejimo (別れ霜, Farewell Frost) • 1892: Tamadasuki (玉襷, Jeweled Sleeve Band) • 1892: Samidare (五月雨, Early Summer Rain or May Rain) • 1892: Kyōzukue (経づくえ, Sutra Writing) • 1892: Umoregi (うもれ木, In Obscurity) • 1893: Akatsuki-zukuyo (暁月夜, Dawn Moonlit Night) • 1893: Yuki no hi (雪の日, A Snowy Day) • 1893: Koto no ne (琴の音, The Sound of the Koto) • 1894: Hanagomori (花ごもり, Clouds in Springtime) • 1894: Yamiyo (やみ夜, Encounters on a Dark Night) • 1894: Ōtsugomori (大つごもり, On the Last Day of the Year or The Last Day of the Year) • 1895: Takekurabe (たけくらべ, Child's Play, Growing Up, They Compare Heights or Teenagers Vying for Tops) • 1895: Noki moru tsuki (軒もる月, The Eaves Moon) • 1895: Yuku kumo (ゆく雲, Passing Clouds) • 1895: Utsusemi (うつせみ, Temporary) • 1895: Nigorie (にごりえ, Troubled Waters, Muddy Water or In the Gutter) • 1895: Jūsan'ya (十三夜, The Thirteenth Night) • 1896: Kono ko (この子, This Child) • 1896: Wakaremichi (わかれ道, Separate Ways or The Parting of the Ways) • 1896: Ware kara (われから, From Me)

Higuchi's stories have been translated into a variety of languages. The first English translation dates back as early as 1903 (Ōtsugomori, as The Last Day of the Year, by Tei Fujio). In 1981, a selection of nine of her stories appeared with new translations provided by Robert Lyons Danly. Some stories have also been translated from classical Japanese language, in which all of Higuchi's works are written, into modern Japanese, like Hiromi Itō's translation of Nigorie or Fumiko Enchi's translation of Takekurabe.