Waves of Moonlight
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 3 - NOVEMBER 2001
A Wave of Moonlight
Woman Poets of Japan
Echoes Over Hills:
the haiku of
Sugita Hisajo
Debra Woolard Bender (US)
with Eiko Yachimoto (JP)
New Featue
Features:
A WAVE OF MOONLIGHT:
WOMEN POETS OF JAPAN
A Wave of Moonlight - Women Poets of Japan
Reading the essay, This is Your Haiku Life: Fire, Beauty and Haiku
Life, Love and Poetry of Suzuki Masajo by Susumu Takiguchi, which was published in the August 2001 issue, as well as participating in the WHCacademia kansho on one of Masajo's firefly haiku, fueled my growing interest in Japanese women poets. At the same time, there is a literal dearth of information on these women or their haiku available to non-Japanese language readers. It is the mutual interest of both WHC Chairman, Susumu Takiguchi, and myself to bring these fine poets into greater visibility through WHC and World Haiku Review. Thus, this series was born.
When asking help in finding romaji haiku versions of Hisajo's poems for this essay in its first draft, I learned that Eiko Yachimoto, WHC member and a member/translator for AIR (Association of International Renku), had developed a keen interest in the woman poet whom is its subject. Her subsequent research and further contributions of biographical information to this work are greatly appreciated. She has offered, in addition, a page of her own translations which follows the essay.
Women have figured prominently in Japanese poetry throughout history. In fact, today, the majority of haiku poets in Japan, perhaps over 70 percent, according to Kazuo Sato, are women. Many have made strides in the development of haiku, tanka and the literary arts. One such woman of modern times is Sugita Hisajo (surname given first), a poet of genius whose fifty-five years spanned the Meiji, Taisho and Showa periods of Japanese history.
It is with joy and respect that we introduce Hisajo - and - "A Wave of Moonlight - Women Poets of Japan."
- D.W. Bender
Echoes Over Hills:
the haiku of Sugita Hisajo
Debra Woolard Bender
with Eiko Yachimoto
On any morning after the breakfast wash-up, you could find the young woman with the daily newspapers. Printed pages spread out before her, brush loaded with freshly ground black ink, for several hours Hisajo would apply all her heart and soul to the practice of shodo, the Japanese art of calligraphy. While newsprint would serve as her paper for practice, in the finished writing of her poems, she would use the best tanzaku sheets and her best brushes, burning incense before she began. Whatever results did not meet her satisfaction were promptly destroyed. In the art of shodo, for which Hisajo was renowned, her style of calligraphy would develop as one of the best for haiku. But this poet/shodo-artist would try her hand at writing tanka and novels before concentrating on haiku as her long-term medium in the literary arts.
nukazuke ba...ware mo zennyo ya...busshoe
Sugita Hisajo
[and hereafter]
fallen prostrate here
I too would be virtuous
Buddha’s birthday
...at Thy feet...this woman too
......has fallen...on Buddha's birthday
[All haiku variations in English herein are versions by D.W. Bender]
Born Akabori Hisa, on May 1890 [Meiji 23] in Kagoshima, Kyushu, she would eventually take the haigo (pen-name) “Hisajo,” meaning “long-time woman,” “eternal woman” or “permanent woman”. Her father, Akabori Renzo, was a high-ranking civil servant working for the Meiji government. He would be dispatched to other lands as an important person, always bringing his family to freer, sunnier cities. In his great love for his daughters, he obtained the highest possible education for them. Hisa was the third daughter of Akabori and his wife, Sayo, a respected master of ikebana, who practiced her art even into her eighties. Young Hisa attended school inRyukyu, modern day Okinawa, and later, in Formosa (Taiwan).
kochi fuku ya...mimi arawaruru...unai gami
easterly wind
ears sprout
from a child's
cropped hair
an easterly wind...ears appear
...........unbound...from a girl's short hair
The year following her graduation in 1909 [Meiji 42] from Ocha-no-Mizu Women’s High School, an affiliate of Tokyo Women’s Teacher’s College, she married a painter, Sugita Unai, on acceptance of her father's recommendation. Her husband, a feudal landowner's son, was from Oku-Mikawa, a mountainous region east of Nagoya in Aichi Prefecture. Unai, who was older than she, may have been the friend of one of her older brothers. That the prospective bridegroom had graduated from Tokyo's prestigious art college may have been attractive to the 20 year old at the time of marriage proposal. His appointment as art master to a middle school sent the newlyweds to Kokura, in Northern Kyushu. To take the position, Unai left his post-graduate courses in mid-term. Unai was content as a schoolmaster, a respected position in pre-war Japan, and he worked for the same institution for over forty years. Hisajo was 22 years old in 1911 [Meiji 44], when she first became a mother. They would have two daughters, Masako and Mitsuko. Later, their firstborn, (married surname) Ishi Masako, wrote of her parents that they were complete opposites.
hishi tsumu to...kagame ba numa wa...waku nioi
leant over the boat
to pick water chestnuts
the marsh smells boiled
.........bent over...plucking water chestnuts
....a boiled smell ..from the bog
Personality differences may be one reason why the marriage of Unai and Hisajo was not an entirely happy one. Also, here was a young woman, perhaps caught between the fires of artistic temperament and the proprieties of social expectations. Could she be content to live peacefully, locked into the role of obedient wife to a school-master, far from her family's home? Prior to, and during the Meiji-Taisho era, a virtuous woman lived in the shadow of her husband in dutiful service to him, his family's household and the children. But Hisajo was a woman of vision, intellect and innovative, even daring, artistic skill. How could one such as she fulfil the traditional expectations of a wife and yet remain true to herself?
tabi tsugu ya...nora to mo nara zu...kyoshi-zuma
patching tabi
not becoming a Nora; life
of a teacher’s wife
mending socks...I don't become
...........a Nora...as a teacher's wife
The reference in the winter tabi haiku is to Nora, the wife and heroine of the stage play, A Doll’s House, by Henrik Ibsen. By Hisajo's comparison of herself to Ibsen's protagonist-housewife, she would therefore be relating to womans' struggle in "a man's world" toward realizing herself as an individual in the increasingly modern era. She may be expressing dissatisfaction with married life, husband and even herself concerning times when relationships can become awkward and spouses grow apart. [dwb]
In fact, shortly after her father's death, Hisajo spent about a year with her mother, away from her husband. Because of a kidney ailment, part of her time in Tokyo was spent in a hospital. During that stay, Sayo asked Unai to divorce his wife, out of pity for her daughter's marital unhappiness. However, upon his strong refusal, Hisajo returned to her husband in Kokura, on Kyushu island which is separated from Tokyo by a great distance. For the sake of their two daughters, whom she could not abandon, she would never leave her husband. Not becoming a "Nora," she would choose to remain a family woman for the rest of her life. Around that time, while in her 30's, Hisajo, in her spiritual quests, was baptized as a Christian, although she apparently did not remain long in the church. Refocusing on poetry, her absorption with haiku greatly intensified from this time on.
haritosu...onna no iji ya...ai-yukata
the persistent spirit
of a woman
indigo-dyed yukata
spirit of woman...keeping on!
. indigo-dyed.. yukata
Several years before the talk of divorce occurred, Hisajo had begun to write haiku. In 1916 [Taisho 5], at the age of 26, she was mentored, at first by her older brother, Gessen when he moved to Kokura for a time. It was he who induced her to join the famed Hototogisu school which was headquartered in Tokyo. The organization was led, at that time, by Takahama Kyoshi [1874-1959], successor to Masaoka Shiki. Kyoshi wished to promote haiku to women and had established the column, “Kitchen Songs,” in Hototogisu magazine, specifically to publish womens' verse. Kyoshi recognized Hisajo's talent.
Here was a poetess who applied those qualities of great focus, long-term patience and pursuit of excellence to her continually increasing interest in haiku. She paid close attention to every word and least detail. A perfectionist, she revised her haiku relentlessly. She believed the improvement of even a single poem to be important. At the same time, she felt that reliance on any particular technique could weaken haiku. If any poem was not remembered and recited by readers, she would say, it could not be good haiku. [dwb]
ita no gotoki...obi ni sasare.nu...aki ogi
stiff as a board --
the tight obi jabbed
by an autumn fan
......autumn fan...folded shut
.stabbing an obi...stiff as a board
In her autumn fan haiku, the author is saying that because the obi is like a wooden plank, it will not budge even to accommodate the slender folded fan where it is normally carried - between obi and kimono. As a frustration, this could be symbolic of her predicament or frame of mind. This passionate poet may have often expressed in poetry, through hidden metaphor, what she could not say in public. [dwb]
It seems that Hisajo inherited her hard-working academic calibre from her father, and her fine artistic sensibilities from her mother. She adamantly told her daughter, Masako, that among her life-long goals, one was to study all women poets of the Edo period who engaged in haikai no renga.
Being a woman of such intensity, Hisajo was not one to passively copy nature, but often drew her subject matter from the activity of everyday events. Creation was the impetus of her passion. Her poetry does, of course, include nature/kigo, family and home-life, a woman's perspectives, and even haiku about haiku. Some of Hisajo's sensual haiku would rival erotic waka written by women of the Heian period: [dwb]
usumono ni...so tooru tsuki no...hadae kana
gauzy kimono
how the moon pierces through
to bare skin
penetrating...a sheer kimono
........moon...painting the figure
It is important to notice, in Hisajo's poetry, what is not said, or in other words, what must be "filled in" with the imagination and discovered by the reader. In his essay comparing poetry and painting, Nakanishi Susumu uses one of her haiku, published in 1919 [Taisho 8], to illustrate a technique correlative to both arts. He explains:
In Japanese-style painting, we have a technique called "rusu-e," or "absent picture." For example, hedges and buildings are painted, while people are left out. Many kinds of robes are painted without people. In other words, people are not painted, but their existence is implied by the sleeves hanging on a screen or higher stand. This is called "[*tagasode-byobu]", or "whose sleeve screen."
hanagoromo nuguya matsuwaru himoiroiro
- Sugita Hisajo
blossom kimono/undone, then clinging/various cords
[tr. Nakanishi Susumu]
Certainly this method of haiku has the same symbolic nature as absent picture technique. The main topic is absent, but called up by association. This technique can convey to readers various images of the main topic more vividly than when it is actually described. -Nakanishi Susumu [dwb]
PM
hanagoromo...nuguya matsuwaru...himoiroiro
festive flower robes
soon as undressed, their clinging
colored cords!
.....cherry blossom robes...slowly shed
............oh their clinging...colored strings!
Hisajo's poem delightfully likens a woman's disrobing of her formal hanami kimono with its layered under-garments to the shedding of petals from sakura (cherry tree). The poet integrates nature with a subtle, feminine sensuality. She wrote about this haiku in 1928 [Showa 3]:
Taking off her hanagoromo outfit, one piece after another, the woman is a little annoyed at the cords sticking to her garments, and she is pleasantly tired after the cherry viewing party. My poem reveals a private moment by examining two aspects of the cords -- the beauty of their many colors, and their sluggish motion.
[tr.Nakamura Yutaka
Nipponia, No. 8, 1999] [dwb]
In 1931 [Showa 6], at age 41, Hisajo entered a haiku in a competition organized by Osaka-Mainichi Daily News. Her haiku was selected in the category for "Hikosan Mountains," winning the prize for fukei (landscape) haiku. Selected from over 100,000 entries, her winning entry propelled her to national fame.
kodama shite...yama-hototogisu...hoshii mama
echoes
unrestrained
yama-hototogisu
repeating at will
echoes over hills...the cuckoo
..........as it wills...trill after trill
While, financially, Unai faithfully supported his family, Hisajo taught haiku and art, and took in sewing for the purpose of earning extra monies toward sending their daughters to an excellent school. As Masako and Mitsukogrew up, she diligently worked toward good marriages for both of them, and after their education, they did marry, moving away from their parents' home. By 1932 [Showa 7], the energetic 42 year old poet launched a haiku magazine, Hanagoromo. Appointed as a dojin of the Hototogisu school, a respected position of seniority among poets for which few are chosen, the haiku devotee became a leader of women poets. With characteristic attention to detail, Hisajo superbly edited and illustrated her magazine. The now-famous Hashimoto Takako, who was one of Hisajo's early disciples, was first published in that journal. Takako would later split away from promoting women's haiku. Hanagoromo, which was published every other month, lived through only five issues for reasons not fully ascertained, yet the magazine gave birth and recognition to women poets. Through her own haiku, her magazine, and with Kyoshi and the Hototogisu school, Sugita Hisajo was instrumental in advancing the cause, and elevating the status, of women as literary artists...
kiku no hi ni...shizuku furi suku...nurege kana
Day of Chrysanthemums
what a shower of droplets
combed from wet hair
on Chrysanthemum Day...scattered droplets
..........................rain...from wet-combed hair
...and as an woman-artist of the new, modern era, herself. While her haiku is rooted in tradition, Hisajo's haiku would not prove rote or mediocre. She could even be unconventional in her approaches.
Note the repetition/internal rhyme echoing in the sounds, "o": kodoma, hototogisu and hoshii, and "ama": kodama,yama and mama. (The hototogisu or "mountain cuckoo" is a native songbird of Japan which is named after the sound of its call.) [dwb]
In an online biography of Hisajo for his Mushimegane online site, Yotsuya Ryu writes that Taisho-period haijin of the Hototogisu school were known for the technique of creating a pseudo-perspective by combining a foreground image with a distant view, or background (“telescoping” images, much as seen in a scenic photograph). Poets practicing this technique tended to make the distant view the focal point. The foreground served as a foil, enhancing the picture through a harmony of elements. Yotsuya notes that in Hisajo's poems, as a contrast to the "norm," these two views are given equal weight. This creates a tension in that neither element is in subjection to, or lesser than the other, forging a new way toward today’s contemporary haiku:
asagao ya...nigori some taru...ichi no sora
morning glory!
the marketplace sky
grows murky
morning-face flower!...murkiness
.....................dying...the marketplace sky
In the asagao verse, which employs her comparative technique, the combination of an expansive background with a diminutive foreground element is delicately balanced through contrasts, especially of stillness and movement. The fresh, bright loveliness of a soon-perishing little vine-bloom is seen against an unstoppable, impending, dirty gloom. The Sugita's resided in the area of Kitakyushu, a port town and manufacturing center where, at that time, stood rows of factories and iron mills. The dawn sky would grow sooty from the discharges of smokestacks. The word, "ichi" refers to "asagao-ichi," the morning glory market where people go to buy the plant, seeds and flowers of theasagao. These markets have a special poetic connotation and atmosphere. Not merely a scenic picture, the content in this haiku portrays a universal theme: natural beauty soiled by the day-to-day business of man (yet, like the asagao, renewing its bloom each new day, might a person remain unsoiled?). The elements are well-chosen to hold, within the image, atangible truth which relates humanity to environmental nature. [dwb]
Hisajo's finely crafted haiku are sensitive, musical and employ a wide lexicon, for which she was known. She was recognized as one of the best poets of the late 1920’s, the age of jazz, art deco and industry. Progress was being made toward womens' rights and equality. Japan's culture was coming under the influences of the West as never before (and visa versa). However, as much as Kyoshi admired Hisajo’s talent and promoted haiku to women, in October 1936 [Showa 11], at the age of 46, just a few years from the demise of her journal, she wasexpelled from Hototogisu's coterie along with Hino Sojo and Yoshioka Zenjido. Hanagoromo's publication would be no more.
usumono o...tatsu ya midaruru...mado no kibi
cutting through gauze --
waves of millet rumple
past the window
..........cutting...a length of silk
.at the window...millet waves rumple
Ever since Masaoka Shiki's haiku reformation had taken root, the genre continued to be further explored, examined and experimented with by individual poets and under modern movements. Some of Shiki's disciples were spearheads, notably Kawahigashi Hekigodo, with his Shin Keiko [New Trend Movement] promoting free-form and more subjective content for haiku. As these revolutions intensified, Kyoshi, especially through Hototogisu, guarded the more conservative approach with its objective seasonal shasei ("sketch") and fixed-form. Takiguchi Susumu, writing in Kyoshi, a Haiku Master, observes that by doing so, Kyoshi maintained stability and even preserved haiku's integrity during those times of change and upheaval. Had Hisajo's haiku begun to lean "too far" toward idealistic, passionate or "new style" haiku? Was her dismissal a matter of poetic politics? Were there personal or private conflicts or misunderstandings? Among rumours, there were reports suggesting that egotism, extremism or flamboyance may have contributed to her problems. Yet in a life devoted to art, set with high standards of workmanship, could passions, problems, and frictions have even been a fount from which her work flowed from creation to creation? There have been those throughout history, after all, for whom tribulation has brought depth to the soul, and out of those depths, strength to reach new heights.
shiroshiro to...hanabira sori nu...tsuki no kiku
white into white
petals curl toward the moon
of chrysanthemums
chrysanthemum petals...'neath the moon
.....................curling...into whiteness
Tensions and controversy, however, eventually took their toll. Hisajo's name had been stricken from the Hototogisu group. She ardently wished to publish her haiku collection. It has been said that Hisajo adored and looked up to Kyoshi, but that her ways became bothersome to him. At the time she asked his introduction for her haiku collection, he declined. Hisajo would not dare to publish without Kyoshi's prefacing words. World War 2 had begun and Japan was under attack by air raids and bombings. Rejected by her haiku community, living in a troubled marriage with the added stresses and exhaustion of wartime while enduring a chronic kidney ailment, Hisajo's well-being began to deteriorate. Evidently, she had become depressed, and in October 1945 [Showa 20], two months after the war ended, she was admitted to Kyushu University Hospital for treatment. Schizophrenia was suspected, and rumours abound, but according to renowned author, Tanabe Seiko, it may well have been a menopausal disorder. Sadly and unjustly, to be hospitalised for, or even suspected of illness which affects the emotions or mind has carried a stigma and ostracism, not easily overcome, even in today's medically "enlightened" age, greatly intensifying the suffering of the afflicted. In those days, it was even more so.
yugao ya...hiraki kakari te...hida fukaku
moonflower
only half-open
deeply creased
ev'ning-face...bloom only half-opened
.....in spirals...deeply creased
For some time after the war, the food situation was not good in hospitals, and in her 55th year, Hisajo died, reportedly of kidney disease due to poor nutrition. The date was January 21, 1946 [Showa 21], the first winter after Japan's defeat. Since their two daughters were married and living in their own homes at that time, it may be that Unai had not consulted with them about the final hospitalisation of their mother. He had said at her death, "I wish I could have taken care of her at home, had I known that she would die so soon." Hisajo's grave is in Aichi Prefecture, the mountainous place of her husband's family. Movingly, eleven years after Hisajo was buried, the rite of bunkotsu was conducted. A portion of her bones were transferred to Shinano, in present-day Nagano Prefecture, where the Akabori family's ancestral graveyards are located. This dividing of bones or ashes, shows honour to both sides of the family.
ajisai ni...shurei itaru...Shinano kana
autumn chill
arrives at the hydrangea
ah! Shinano
....to hydrangea comes...cold autumn air
................old Shinano...ah!
On a dramatic note, Hisajo's Shinano haiku seems to foreshadow the poet's death in the "autumn season" of her mid-life and the delayed rite of bunkotsu. The use of double kigo -- summer hydrangea and autumn chill -- heightens the sense of melancholic sadness felt for bygone days, places and passages of transitory things. At the same time, the history, scenery and climate of Shinano is felt, as if sweeping in on winds of change from a far distance -- from beyond present time and place. The past? The future? Yet it is not her unseen ancestral home, Shinano, which moves, changes, ages or fades but rather, the flower, the season, the weather, the mood. In this small verse, Hisajo has selected and elegantly arranged elements to once again create a uniquely balanced perspective. The image brings emotional awareness of those in-between states of seasonal flux, approaching endings and of intense human longings. [dwb]
Six years after her death, in 1952 [Showa 27], Kyoshi wrote and published a novel, Kuniko no tegami (Letters from Kuniko). Bessho Makiko states in an essay and confirmed with Ishi Masako, that the book was mostly comprised of Hisajo's letters to Kyoshi. At that same time, at the written request of her eldest daughter, Kyoshi agreed to publish Hisajo's poetry collection. Ishi Masako followed his instructions on how to classify the haiku and prepare the manuscript for the publisher. Above all, in a loving tribute to restore honour and give consolation to her mother's soul, she obtained Kyoshi's forward to be included in Sugita Hisajo Kushu (The Complete Haiku of Sugita Hisajo) as the introduction.
Hisajo's life and poetry have inspired poets from her own time to ours. While researching and collaborating on this essay, its two authors have felt an affinity stretching across space and time toward this courageous, spirited and creative person of many talents.
shuncho ni...nagaruru mo ari...ya no gotoku
spring rapids
a shaft of algae whizzes by
arrow-quick
a sprig of algae...on spring tides....
.......shoots by...swift as an arrow
Credits:
Essay compilation and composition by D. W. Bender. Biographical information collected jointly by Debra Woolard Bender and Eiko Yachimoto with help from Susumu Takiguchi. Translation of resources and advisement, E. Yachimoto and S. Takigichi.
All kansho are specifically Bender's. Haiku selections, English versions and arrangement are Bender's. All haiku versions herein are her own adaptations, and are not intended as translations.
Special thanks to Susumu Takiguchi for his help with biographical resources; Eiko Yachimoto, and Susumu Takiguchi for their help with Japanese language advice for Debra's English-language haiku versions; Yotsuya Ryu, who provided Hisajo's haiku in romaji; Florence Vilén and John E. Carley for editing help; and to Neca Stoller for providing information on the Nakanishi Susumu essay.
The 15 syllable 2-line "zip", a fixed-form haiku style was developed by John E. Carley, U.K.
Definitions:
ajisai/hydrangea: (meaning: water vessel) a summer blooming plant with clustered flowers. In varieties of white, pink and blue, ajisai is indigenous to Shinano (the old name of Nagano Prefecture).
asagao: morning glory; literally: "morning face."
haikai no renga a genre of Japanese linked poetry written by a number of poets.
hototogisu: Japanese songbird (Cuculus poliocephalus - lesser cuckoo, Oriental cuckoo) - also known as "mountain cuckoo," "grey headed cuckoo". Hear it's call at this URL:
http://mushinone.cool.ne.jp/English/naturesound/EOoruri-forest.htm
hanagoromo/hana-koromo: In olden times, at cherry viewing festival, women wore hanagoromo ("flower garment"), colorful kimonos. These formal, layered garments were traditionally tied together with seven silk sashes and cords of different widths, thickness and colors. Long sleeved kimono is for unmarried girls and women, while shorter sleeved kimonos are for married women. In modern times, hanagoromo means a "haregi" (a kimono for special occasions) which women wear for cherry blossom viewing. Haijin like to refer to it after a woman has come home from the cherry blossom viewing. Some use the term to mean a scene where cherry petals are falling onto such kimonos.)
tagasode-byobu: literally, "whose sleeve? screen". A folding screen (byobu) painted as a trompe l'oeil interior setting in which one or more kimonos are displayed among other accessories, creating an intimate "portrait" of a person or persons whose presence is implied. The kimonos are generally casually draped across a hanging rack. Gold leaf was often used; on one museum example, an early collage technique incorporates bits of fabric. (*Nakanishi uses the term, "saga todu byobu")
shodo: "the way of calligraphy".
tanzaku: a handmade vertical strip of Japanese paper mounted on board having a gold border. Two standard sizes: 2 3/8" W X 14 1/4" H and 3" X 14 1/4. It is extensively used for haiku and tanka in calligraphy.
usumono: a kimono made with a very lightweight, or sheer cloth, fashionable in the 1920's.
yugao/moonflower; evening glory; bottle gourd plant; literally: "evening-face" -
the flower opens from late afternoon into the evening, then shrivels, withered by morning sun. (Yugao is also the name of one of Hikaru's (Prince Genji) principal lovers in the famous, Tale of the Genji by Lady Murasaki Shikibu. Yugao was killed by the jealous spirit of another of his lovers, Rokujo.)
yukata: an informal summer kimono made of cotton, traditionally blue and white (dyed with indigo).
References:
Those Women Writing Haiku , Chapter Six: "Women Writing Short Forms in Contemporary Japan", Jane Reichhold, Aha!Poetry 1998.
Kyoshi, A Haiku Master, Susumu Takiguchi, Ami-net International Press, Oxfordshire, 1997: an important book to read for related history.
Hanagoromo, by Tanabe Seiko, Shueisha Publishing Co. Ltd., Tokyo, February 10, 1987 [Showa 62].
Gendai-haiku to koten (Modern Haiku and Classic Haiku), Asahi Grafu, 5 October 1987 [Showa 62] Issue, The Asahi Shimbun, page 96.
Gosei Haiku No Sekai: Sujita Hisajo Kara Gendai No Seiei Made, Fujimishobo; JP.
Sugita Hisajo Kushu (The Complete Haiku of Sugita Hisajo), Kadokawa Press, Inc, Tokyo:
2-13-3 Fujimi Chiyoda district
Tokyo , Japan 102
TEL : 03-3238-8411
FAX : 03-3262-7601
Kuniko no tegami (Letters from Kuniko), Takahama Kyoshi; 1952 [Showa 27], JP.
Gendai Haiku Taikei Vol. 9 (Complete Anthology of Modern Haiku); 1973 [Showa 48], Kadokawa Shoten, JP (the whole of Hisajo ku-shu, including Kyoshi's introduction and Ishi Masako's essay on her mother are in this volume). Multiple editors include Yamamoto Kenkichi, Mizuhara Shuoshi, Kusama Tokihiko, Nozawa Setsuko.
Kyosei no Bungaku (Symbiotic Literature), Bessho Makiko; JP, Tokyo Bunken Center, 28 September, 2001[Heisei 13].
Ai no Haiku, Ai no Jinsei (Haiku of Love, Life of Love), Taniguchi Keiko; JP, Kodansha, April 2001 [Heisei 13].
Women Poets of Japan, translated and edited by Kenneth Rexroth & Ikuko Atsumi, Modern Haiku Poets: Sugita Hisajo (p.152.), New Directions Publishing, NY.[Showa 52].
NIPPONIA, No. 8, 1999 [Heisei 11]; Haiku and Nature, Nakamura Yutaka.
Mushimegane, History of Haiku: 10 haikuists and their work, Chapter 8 - "Hisajo Sugita," Yotsuya Ryu.
A Technique in Haiku, Nakanishi Susumu; Frogpond Supplement XX, 1997 [Heisei 9], p. 55.
[rev. 02-26-02 / 03-04-02]