Heisei Murasaki: What Women Poets Have Found during Japan's Lost Decades

Abstract

Amidst the revolutionary modernization of Meiji-era Japan, author Shimizu Shikin (1869–1933) raised the provocative question of the “modern Murasaki”—asking where the equivalent of literary giant Murasaki Shikibu (author of The Tale of Genji) was to be found during Shikin’s own time. This question was a dual move, both reminding readers of the strong presence of women writers in Japan’s classical literary world and suggesting their equally vital role in forming literary discourse as a social force in Japan’s modernizing world, despite women writers’ critical lack of recognition by the male-dominated literary establishment.1 This question later became the impetus for Rebecca Copeland and Melek Ortobasi’s 2006 anthology, The Modern Murasaki: Writing by Women of Meiji Japan. The present selection of translated poetry by Misumi Mizuki, Fuzuki Yumi, Nagae Yūki, Saihate Tahi, and Ishiwata Kimi extends the question into the current era through two further queries. First, where is the modern Murasaki in contemporary Japan? And second, what does the history of women’s poetry from Meiji Japan (1868–1912) through the Heisei era (1989–present) reveal about not only gender-aware but gendertranscendent traditions within Japanese culture? By focusing on the youngest generations of contemporary women poets, I aim both to showcase a selection of those on the cutting