Look at the Japanese 5,000 yen banknote. The female portrait there is the author, Higuchi Ichiyō! She lived in the transitory period, from Edo to Meiji, not only in political and economic systems, but also in culture; customs and habits of the Edo era still remained in everyday life and in cultures of ordinary people in Meiji, and it is the everyday life and routines that Ichiyō, as a contemporary, has precisely described in her novels. Besides, Ichiyō wrote her novels from the perspective of women who had lived in abysmal poverty. She did not look at those women from outside as male authors did, but Ichiyō herself has lived very close to their world for 24 years, where she died. Today, in our everyday life, we are happy to meet Ichiyō as the image girl of the 5,000 yen banknote.
The storyline of the novel, Nigorie, ‘Turbid Bay,’ runs in July in summer in touch with a downright stalker-murderer, the victim, and their background stories. A bitter remorse left behind. In the other novel, Wakaremichi, ‘The Way To Go,’ a 20-year-old stylish seamstress once said, “My heart burns with anger very often.” A 16-year-old foundling wondered, “Whether I was born from a crotch of a tree.” They did not have to sit daydreaming for a long time, but their relationship was over all too soon. Enjoy!
In the postscript, background concepts of her novels are discussed, and Appendix 1 refers to “Related information that everyone may want to know, and yet, access is hitherto not easy.” Do you know the difference between waka and haiku? Appendix 2 talks about “Waka-poems as Japanese culture” and encourages readers to compose waka poems.
The storyline of the novel, Nigorie, ‘Turbid Bay,’ runs in July in summer in touch with a downright stalker-murderer, the victim, and their background stories. A bitter remorse left behind. In the other novel, Wakaremichi, ‘The Way To Go,’ a 20-year-old stylish seamstress once said, “My heart burns with anger very often.” A 16-year-old foundling wondered, “Whether I was born from a crotch of a tree.” They did not have to sit daydreaming for a long time, but their relationship was over all too soon. Enjoy!
In the postscript, background concepts of her novels are discussed, and Appendix 1 refers to “Related information that everyone may want to know, and yet, access is hitherto not easy.” Do you know the difference between waka and haiku? Appendix 2 talks about “Waka-poems as Japanese culture” and encourages readers to compose waka poems.
