Tsugi Takano

However, she was forced to withdraw because of an eye disease. In 1909, at the age of 19, she married newspaper reporter Yasaburō Takano despite the objections of those around her. She moved with her husband to Toyohashi, Fukushima, and Tokyo. In the midst of her husband's long unemployment, six of eight of her children succumbed to ill health. She herself fought a long battle with tuberculosis to which she succumbed to in 1943 at the age of 52. From her time at Hamamatsu Woman's High School developed a deepening interest in the writings of female literary circles. In 1922 she published her first novel, kanashiki haibun. Later, while on her sickbed, she wrote a novel with 11 volumes. Her works urged the calm self-discovery and self-reformation of woman. There is a stone monument dedicated to Takano at Hamamatsu Municipal High School (the original Hamamatsu Woman's High). Inscribed on the monument is one of her poems where she writes about thinking of her home town.

Her works include: • Kusa-yabu "A grassy hedge" • Mado "Window" • Toki "Time" • Mushi-hoshi "Drying Insects" See also: Japanese literature, List of Japanese authors