Girl in a Box
The Tangled Life of Yosano Akiko, Japan’s Feminist Poet
Coming in Spring 2026 by Sibylline Press
Yosano Akiko (1878 - 1942) is best known for her 31-syllable tanka poems, but they are only part of her story. She was among the first to translate the world’s first novel, The Tale of Genji, into modern Japanese. She helped found Japan’s first co-educational school. She advocated for women’s rights and recognition in Japanese society.
Disowned by her family, drawn into a doomed love triangle, ostracized for her sexy poetry and outspoken social commentary, and pushed to exhaustion supporting her eleven surviving children, Akiko’s life was filled with struggle and unexpected beauty.
Her snapshot-short tanka are about love and jealousy, working-mom moments, and backyard beauty. Akiko’s story reminds us that the barriers we face today are not so different from the ones our grandmothers faced, and her tanka reaffirm the power of poetry to help us survive pain and celebrate life.
About the Project
I have been thinking about writing this biographical novel for thirty years.
Akiko’s love poems first took my breath away in the 1980s when I was studying Japanese in college. As I got older, her writing about marriage, childbirth, and women’s rights began to speak to me as well.
As I wrote the story of Akiko’s life, I began translating her tanka poems. At this point, I have translated scores of them; to my knowledge, the majority of them have never been translated before. Akiko’s poetry is filled with classical references, making this work challenging. I would have no hope without the help of friends and supporters, including Yoko Kato, Masayo Baillet, Kate Mashiko, Chizuru Shimizu, Noriyo Tokuchi, and the Yosano Akiko Club of Sakai, Japan (particularly the Club Chairman, Emeritus Prof. Noboru Ota and Administrator Yukihiko Kotani), and the blog MerryDiary.
日本語ででも、お気軽にご連絡ください。
Jean Gordon Kocienda
