Takeshita Shizunojo

Takeshita Shizunojo ( Japanese 竹 下 し づ の 女 ; born March 19, 1887 in Yukuhashi ; † August 3, 1951 in Fukuoka ), actually Takeshita Shizuno ( 竹 下 静 廼 ), was a Japanese haiku poet of the prewar period .

Life

Takeshita Shizunojo was born on March 19, 1887 as the first daughter of the village mayor Takeshita Hōkichi ( 竹 下 宝 吉 ) and his wife Fuji ( フ ジ ) in the village of Hieda (now part of the city of Yukuhashi ), Fukuoka Prefecture.

Because of her father's position, she received a good upbringing. In 1903, at the age of 16, she attended the women's educational institution in Fukuoka and was instructed there by Suematsu Bōyasu ( 末 松 房 泰 ) in prose literature, Japanese waka and Chinese poetry.

After graduating, she worked as an assistant teacher at the Kokura Pedagogy School after stints at Kubo Primary School in Miyako Province and Hieda Primary School .

In 1912, when she was 25 years old, she married Mizuguchi Hanzo ( 水口 伴 蔵 ), who was also accepted into the Takeshita family, and moved to Fukuoka, where her husband Hanzo was employed as a teacher at the agricultural school. She gave birth to five children, two sons and three daughters.

In 1919, when she was 32 years old, she began to write haiku, and was instructed by Yoshioka Zenjidō ( 吉岡 禅寺 洞 ), editor of Amanogawa magazine ( 天 の 川 , English "Milky Way", literally "river of heaven"). Later she was the student of Takahama Kyoshi and proposed and accepted as a new member in the circle of the Haiku magazine Hototogisu .

In 1933, when Shizunojo was 46 years old, Hanzo suddenly died of a cerebral haemorrhage, after which she took care of her children as a librarian in the prefectural library. After losing her husband, she devoted herself to haiku poetry even more than before.

In 1937 she headed the magazine Seisōken ( 成 層 圏 , dt. "Stratosphere"), launched by her eldest son Yoshinobu ( 吉 信 ) during his school days . Later, Nakamura Kusatao also took part in the direction of the magazine that brought Kaneko Tōta and other great talents on the way.

On August 14, 1945 , when the Second World War ended in defeat for the Japanese Empire, Yoshinobu died of tuberculosis at the young age of 31 . Shizunojo was 58 years old at the time.

In addition, she lost a large part of the fields that she had inherited from her grandfather through land reforms. In order to preserve the remaining land, which covered about five hectares, she built a small hut in the field and devoted herself to growing rice. She sent the harvested rice to her children in Fukuoka and at the same time took care of her decrepit mother.

In 1949 she began to lead the Haiku community at Kyushu University , an activity that she continued to the end. She died on August 3, 1951, at the age of 64, in Kyushu University Hospital as a result of worsening kidney disease, which she had suffered from for many years.

She found her final resting place with her husband and her eldest son. The words Ryokuin ya ( 緑陰 や , dt. "Oh, the shade of green") can be read on the tombstone .

Web links

• Biographical summary

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