Higuchi Ichiyō

Higuchi Ichiyō

Higuchi Ichiyō ( Japanese 樋 口 一葉 ; * May 2, 1872 in Tokyo ; †  November 23, 1896 Tokyo), actually Higuchi Natsu ( 樋 口 奈 津 ), was a Japanese writer of the Meiji period . In the Waka poetry and classical literature by Nakajima Utako , trained in the novel by Nakarai Tōsui , she was on friendly terms with the authors of the literary magazine Bungakukai , in which she also published works. In addition to stories such as Takekurabe ( た け く ら べ ), Nigorie ( に ご り え ) or Jūsan'ya ( 十三 夜 ), see below , she left a large number of literarily significant diaries.

The portrait Higuchi Ichiyōs is on in November 2004 by the Japanese central bank issued new 5000 Yen - banknote displayed (picture: see Article yen ).

Life

Higuchi Ichiyō was born on May 2, 1872 in what is now Chiyoda , Tōkyō , as the second daughter of father Higuchi Tamenosuke ( 樋 口 為之 助 ) and mother Ayame ( 多 喜 ), the fifth daughter of the Furuya family ( 古屋 ). Ichiyō's older sister was called Fuji ( ふ じ ), her older brothers were Sentarō ( 泉 太郎 ) and Toranosuke ( 虎 之 助 ). Later, the younger sister Kuni ( く に ) was born.

During her girlhood and youth, she grew up in a medium-sized environment and showed an interest in reading from an early age. At the age of seven, she is said to have read the Nansō Satomi Hakkenden ( 南 総 里 見 八 犬 伝 , dt. "The story of the eight dogs from the house of Satomi in Nansō") by Kyokutei Bakin in full. In 1877 she was enrolled in the Hongo elementary school, but had to leave it again because she was still too young. Some time later, she attended Yoshikawa Private School instead. In 1881 there was a break with Toranosuke, the younger brother, because of his dissolute way of life. In the same year, the family moved to the Okachimachi district in Shitaya , another district of Tōkyō, which is why Ichiyō was retrained in September to the Aoumi school in the Motokuromon district in Ueno . But even before she reached the higher grades, her mother took her out of school, despite her excellent performance, believing that a woman did not need that much education.

In contrast, the father, recognizing his daughter's literary talent , is said to have sent her to Wada Shigeo ( 和田 重 雄 ), an acquaintance, so that he could train her in classic waka poetry. In 1886 she became a pupil at Nakajima Utako's poetry school Haginoya through another friend of her father's . There she received lessons in Japanese calligraphy and classical literature in addition to waka poetry. Ichiyō's first own works were based on the Genji Monogatari and other classical works. During the time at the Haginoya School, she met Itō Natsuko ( 伊 東 夏 子 ) and Tanabe Tatsuko ( 田 辺 龍 子 ), with whom she befriended, and she later taught there herself as an assistant teacher.

Ichiyō's family moved often. A total of twelve parades took place. Sentarō, the older brother, died in 1888, and so did the father in July of the following year. Ichiyō, who was only 17 years old at the time, became head of the family and had to provide for the family. In 1890 she lived as a student at the Haginoya School at the Nakajima house and then moved to Hongō-Kikuzaka in September, where she laboriously earned a living with sewing and washing with her mother and older sister. It is said, however, that Ichiyō himself despised hard physical work and that it was therefore entirely up to the other two women.

When she found out that her classmate Tanabe Kaho ( 田 辺 花圃 ) had received a high honorarium for her novel Yabu no Uguisu ( 藪 の 鶯 , "The Nightingale in the Bush"), Ichiyō decided to write novels. At the age of 20 she wrote Kare obana-hitomoto ( か れ 尾 花 一 も と ) for which she first used the pseudonym Ichiyō . With the aim of earning a living as a writer, she was instructed by Nakarai Tōsui , who works as a novelist for the Asahi newspaper, and published her first work Yamizakura ( 闇 桜 ) in the first edition of Nakarai's magazine Musashino . Even after that, Nakarai took care of Ichiyō. However, the liaison between the two is coming to an early end when rumors spread about them. In response, Ichiyō wrote the novel Umoregi ( う も れ 木 ), which she holds in the idealistic style of Kōda Rohan and with which she separated stylistically and symbolically from Nakarai. It was this novel that established their fame.

After she met writers like Shimazaki Tōson or Hirata Tokuboku , who were familiar with European literature, and came into contact with naturalistic literature, she published numerous works such as Yuki no hi ( 雪 の 日 ) in the literary magazine Bungakukai . At this time she received a marriage proposal from her former fiancé, the prosecutor Sakamoto Saburō , whom she rejected. As the existential problems took a turn, she opened a shop for household appliances and simple sweets in Shitaya-Ryūsenjimachi , near Tokyo's Yoshiwara joy district , but in May 1894 she gave up the shop again and moved to Hongō-Maruyamafukuyamachō . She processes these experiences in her masterpiece Takekurabe . In December 1894 she published Ōtsugomori in the Bungakukai and the following year, 1895, from January Takekurabe in seven parts. In between, she publishes Yukukumo , Nigorie , Jūsan'ya and others. In relation to the time in which all these works were published, one also speaks of the “miracle of the 14 months”. When Takekurabe appeared in a volume in the literary club ( 文 芸 倶 楽 部 , bungei kurabu ) in 1896 , the work was highly praised by Mori Ōgai , Kōda Rohan and others. Mori Ōgai pays tribute to Ichiyō in the literary magazine Mesamashigusa and there is frequent exchange with the authors of the Bungakukai.

On November 23, 1896, Higuchi Ichiyō died of tuberculosis at the age of only 24 . Her literary activity lasted little more than 14 months. After her death in 1897 a complete edition of her works was published.

Pseudonyms

The birth name of Higuchi Ichiyō was Higuchi Natsu (in the officially registered spelling: 樋 口 奈 津 ). The writer herself used other spellings of the name Natsu ( な つ and 夏 ) to sign her diaries and very often its further training Natsuko ( 夏 子 ), under which she also wrote poems. She published short stories and novels under the pseudonym Ichiyō, although she did not mention the family name (Higuchi), with one proven exception. For this reason it is also often called Higuchi Natsuko. In newspapers she published stories under the pseudonyms Asaka no Numako ( 浅 香 の ぬ ま 子 ) and Kasugano Shikako (Kasugano Schikako, 春日 野 し か 子 ).

The name Ichiyō, the best known of the pseudonyms, means a leaf and is reminiscent of the legend according to which the Bodhidharma (Japanese 達磨 , thereforea ) crossed the Yangtze River on a single reed leaf and meditated in front of the wall of a cave for nine years, where he ( according to the Japanese legend) who loses arms and legs that are not needed for years of sitting (see article: Bodhidharma).

Hirata Tokuboku ( 平 田 禿 木 ) sees in the tanka (diary entry from April 19, 1893 ) an indication that the name Ichiyō means this one leaf of reed and thus refers to the Bodhidharma (armless and legless according to Japanese ideas )

「我 こ そ は だ る ま 大師 に 成 り に け れ と ぶ ら は ん に も あ し な し に し て.」

「Ware koso wa / thereforea-daishi ni / nari ni kere / toburawan ni mo / ashi-nashi ni shite.」

"Truly, I became [like] Bodhidharma, the great teacher: if I want to go to a funeral service, I have to do without money (for a funeral gift)."

The poem testifies to the poet's destitution. ashi-nashi is a play on words which, reminiscent of Bodhidharma, can be interpreted in the sense without legs as well as in the sense without money , so that the name Ichiyō can be understood as witty self-irony.

Works

Higuchi, who did not publish many works in her short life, is impressed by the quality of her work: She was the first professional writer in modern Japanese literature .

Novels

• Yamizakura ( 闇 桜 , March 1892 in: Musashino )
• Tamakeyaki ( た ま 欅 , March 1892 in: Musashino )
• Samidare ( 五月 雨 , July 1892 in: Musashino )
• Kyōzukue ( 経 づ く え , September 1892 in: Kōyō Shimpō )
• Umoregi ( う も れ 木 , November 1892 in: Miyako no hana )
• Akatsukizukuyo ( 暁 月夜 , February 1893 in: Miyako no hana )
• Yuki no hi ( 雪 の 日 , March 1893 in: Bungakukai )
• Koto no ne ( 琴 の 音 , December 1893 in: Bungakukai )
• Yamiyo ( や み 夜 , July 1894 in: Bungakukai ), German "In dark night"
• Ōtsugomori ( 大 つ ご も り , December 1894 in: Bungakukai ), German "On the last day of the year"
• Takekurabe ( た け く ら べ , January 1895 to January 1896 in: Bungakukai , German title: The love of little Midori )
• Nokimoru tsuki ( 軒 も る 月 , April 1895 in: Mainichi Shimbun )
• Yuku kumo ( ゆ く 雲 , May 1895 in: Taiyō )
• Utsusemi ( う つ せ み , August 27 to August 31, 1895 in: Yomiuri Shimbun )
• Nigorie ( に ご り え , September 1895 in: Bungeikurabu )
  • Cloudy water . Translated by Jürgen Berndt. In: Dreams of Ten Nights. Japanese narratives of the 20th century. Eduard Klopfenstein, Theseus Verlag, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-85936-057-4 , pp. 7-36.
• Ame no yo ( 雨 の 夜 , September 1895 in: Yomiuri Shimbun )
• Tsuki no yo ( 月 の 夜 , September 1895 in: Yomiuri Shimbun )
• Jūsan'ya ( 十三 夜 , December 1895 in: Bungeikurabu ), German "The night of the autumn moon celebration"
• Wakaremichi ( わ か れ 道 , 1896 in: Kokumin no tomo )
• Ware kara ( わ れ か ら , May 1896 in: Bungeikurabu )

Essays

• Kari ga ne ( 雁 が ね , October 1895 in Yomiuri Shimbun )
• Mushi no ne ( 虫 の 音 , October 1895 in Yomiuri Shimbun )
• Akiawase ( あ き あ は せ , May 1896 in Urawakagusa )
• Hototogisu ( ほ と ゝ ぎ す , July 1896 in Bungeikurabu )

German collective issues

• In the dark of night and other stories. Translated by Michael Stein, Munich, Iudicium, 2007, ISBN 978-3-89129-196-2 . Contains the stories "In darker Nacht", "On the last day of the year" and "The night of the autumn moon celebration".
• Moon over the roof ridge. Manesse Verlag, 2008, ISBN 978-3-7175-2162-4 .

literature

• Fujii Masato, Like a Leaf: The Life and Works of the Japanese poet Ichiyo Higuchi. A biography. Tokyo, Japanese-German Society eV 1975
• Oskar Benl ; Higuchi Ichiyô: The great novelist of the Meiji period; Nippon: Zeitschrift für Japanologie, 8th year, issue 4, p. 219-
• Siegfried Schaarschmidt, Michiko Mae (Hrsg.): Japanese literature of the present. Hanser, Munich / Vienna, ISBN 3-446-15929-0 .
• Timothy J. Van Compernolle: The Uses of Memory: The Critique of Modernity in the Fiction of Higuchi Ichiyo. Cambridge 2006, ISBN 0-674-02272-6 .
• Michael Stein: Higuchi Ichiyô and her sponsor Nakarai Tôsui. In: Eduard Klopfenstein (ed.): Japanese women writers 1890-2006. In: Journal of the Swiss Asian Society. Asian Studies LXI-2-2007, Verlag Peter Lang, Bern, ISSN  0004-4717 , pp. 201-232.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Shinmura Izuru (Ed.): Kōjien . 4th edition. Iwanami shoten, Tōkyō 1991.
2. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from October 24, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  

Web links

• Literature by and about Higuchi Ichiyō in the catalog of the German National Library
• Biographical details ( Memento from July 1, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
• digitized works at Aozora Bunko (Japanese)
• digitized works at the University of Kyoto
• Ichiyo Memorial Museum (Japanese, Chinese, Korean, English, French)

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus, Higuchi is the family name, Ichiyō the first name.