Young Japanese poet Akiko Yosano posing by an open window.
“I can give myself to her
In her dreams
Whispering her own poems
In her ear as she sleeps beside me.”
– Yosano Akiko
Finding queer people to write about for this project is an interesting task. We have gone through online lists, other projects, books, footnotes, and sometimes have just surfed the internet until we found someone interesting. This month I was working on expanding our master list and picked up a book from my shelf: Lesbian Lists: A Look at Lesbian, Culture, History, and Personalities by Dell Richards. In the introduction of the book, I found a sentiment that was extremely interesting considering the current discussions within the queer community around our history:
“Two questions haunted me in compiling the lists for this book.
First, how should I define a lesbian? Should I use a contemporary, twentieth century definition? And if so, which one? Women who are sexually attracted to other women or women who became lesbians through feminism? Or should I use a much broader definition, one that includes the romantic friends movement—women who were women-identified, who had affectionate and loving relationships with other women but may not actually have had sex due to the repressive nature of the era? Should I include sworn sisters and [two-spirit people]? Should I include transvestites? Should I include spinsters?
[...]
My own bias is towards women-identified women, whether they call themselves lesbians or not, whether they had sex or not. To impose today’s standards on earlier eras limits our vision and our history. To dismiss romantic friends, spinsters, and sworn virgins the women who have done everything in their power to escape heterosexual dominance, does them - and us - a grave disservice.”
This idea would guide me on my research journey, as I almost randomly chose the name Yosano Akiko.
Akiko was born on December 7, 1878, in Sakai, Japan to a well off family. Her family had expected a son, and because of this, her father was distant toward her for most of her early childhood until Akiko became interested in literature and reading which became the basis of their relationship. Her mother was remembered as a detached figure in most of her work and her autobiographical material discussed her as an aggressive and oftentimes scary figure in Akiko’s life.
It was mostly due to her mother that one of her first, and most outwardly apparent rebellions began. While her mother dressed her at a young age in clothes Akiko was bored by, the second Akiko was allowed to dress herself, she did so extravagantly. She wore bright colours and outfits that would remain in people’s minds for years after their meeting.
While her brothers were sent to secondary education, Akiko was starting to help run the family business and care for her younger sister who would later say she saw Akiko as a mother. Despite her growing assistance and proven responsibility, her parents maintained a strict attitude towards her and locked the door of her bedroom every night to protect her, something she was deeply offended by. She would remember in her memoirs that she had been a very practical and safety-conscious girl, and her family believing she needed extra protection made her feel like they didn’t know her at all.
More and more as she grew up, she found people treated her a certain way because she was a woman and would dismiss her and her personality when judging her, making choices and judgements for her based solely on her gender.
It was in poetry that she channelled her feelings and thoughts as they developed, writing tankas that focused largely on her experiences as a woman and women in general. She would find success quickly and catch the attention of others in the Japanese literary community, writing for the poetry magazine, Myōjō.
It was through this that she met Tomiko and the man who would become her husband, Tekkan. Both were writers, and she formed a close bond with each of them, she and Tomiko building a friendship as they both pursued Tekkan.
All three loved each other. Akiko and Tomiko wanted to share Tekkan, developing what could have been a polyamorous relationship.
““That secret
We sealed in a jar,
The three of us,
My husband, myself,
And the dead one.””
Unfortunately, they were not given the opportunity to fully pursue this relationship. Tekkan had a reputation and Tomiko’s father arranged for her to marry another man. Akiko and Tekkan married, encouraged by Tomiko.
It was at this point in 1901 that Akiko published her poetry collection Tangled Hair, a revolutionary work containing 400 poems. Akiko became the first poet to discuss breasts explicitly through tanka. Her work was far ahead of its time, showing women in charge of their own sexuality, and building a base for much of the feminist work that would follow it.
Her work was said to “corrupt public morals” and was not received well by critics, but placed her firmly in the literary elite in Japan. Her writing on tangled hair and the bodies of women would shape Japan’s discussion around sexuality to this day.
When Tomiko's husband died in 1902, she returned to the group, but things were different. Akiko was clear that she wanted her marriage with Tekkan to be monogamous even as he was clear he did not believe monogamy was something he wanted to strive for. Akiko’s relationship with Tomiko became strained.
While they remained friends, when Tomiko and Tekkan’s sexual relationship started up again Akiko was deeply hurt. Though she expressed no anger towards either participant she was deeply unhappy with the situation.
Tomiko and Akiko would still write together, publishing Lover’s Clothes, a collection of poetry that got both of them suspended from their college. From all sources, it seems like Akiko firmly refused to hate almost any of Tekkan’s other lovers, even as she tried to maintain a monogamous relationship with her husband. She befriended many of the women.
When Tomiko died in 1909, Akiko would mourn her, but did not do so in the same public way Tekkan did. Later she would right enigmatic poetry about the situation of the three:
“That secret
We sealed in a jar,
The three of us,
My husband, myself,
And the dead one.”
Tekkan would go on to become more attached to the idea of Tomiko. He wrote often and openly about her and his other lovers, continuing to hurt Akiko.
Tekkan was also a poet, and while his wife became more and more successful his career stayed mostly in the same place. He would support his wife in her work, but it was clear in his work he felt upset by the situation.
Akiko was the breadwinner of the family. When they had two children, she cared deeply for them and she often discussed the feminist politics around motherhood in her work. Her writing became more political over time, endorsing pacifism, feminism, and sex positivity. She would write about the lives and sexuality of women society tended to try and forget: mothers, sex workers, and lesbians. It is because of this that her work has become very important to the lesbian community, many of her poems used in queer art.
She would go on to found a school for girls, becoming the school's chief lecturer and its first dean, before dying at the age of 63 in 1942.
It is here that it must be said that while there is evidence to suggest Akiko was queer, it is not as conclusive as many of the people we have discussed before. Her relationship with Tomiko while seeming like it was romantic and could have been sexual, was not explicitly discussed as such. Her poetry included love between two women, but it also included sex work which we know she did not experience.
From all the evidence together, it seems like it is very likely that Akiko was a queer woman. Whether she would have identified that way or not, her work stands among Simone De Beauvoir’s in terms of feminism and is deeply important to the lesbian community along with many other sapphic women. Her story has a place within the queer community just as much as her work has a place within feminist discussions.
[Disclaimer: some of the sources may contain triggering material]
"Yosano, Akiko ." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Retrieved from https://www.encyclopedia.com/reference/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/yosano-akiko
Encyclopedia of Lesbian and Gay Histories and Cultures. (1999). United Kingdom: Garland.
Shinoda, S., Goldstein, S., Yosano, A. (2002). みだれ髪. United States: Cheng & Tsui Company.
The Forgotten Feminist: Akiko Yosano’s Influence On Modern Japan. (2019, January 5). Voyapon. Retrieved from https://voyapon.com/akiko-yosano-japanese-poet/
Yosano Akiko. (2018, May 17). Poetry Foundation. Retrieved from https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/yosano-akiko