Higuchi Ichiyo

(pen name of Higuchi Natsuko). Born 1872 in Tokyo; died there 1896. Japanese writer.

Higuchi, the daughter of a minor police official, studied classical Japanese poetry in a private school. She published her first works in 1892. An adherent of the romantic school, she became known for her short stories and novellas about the life of the common people of Japan. Her novellas Life in the Backwoods (1892), Rivals (1895), Thirteenth Night (1895), and Murky Stream (1895) depict the hard lot of the Japanese woman.

Higuchi’s works contributed to the development of progressive trends in modern Japanese literature and to the cultivation of national artistic traditions. Several of them have been adapted for the stage and screen.