The Space and Time of Daionjimae Childhood in Higuchi Ichiyō’s Takekurabe
The Space and Time of Daionjimae Childhood in Higuchi Ichiyō’s Takekurabe

Summary/Abstract: “This frail young woman had cut a wide swath through Meiji letters. Her grasp of high Heian, her love of low Edo were almost legendary, but she was still sui generis” – these few and yet eloquent words borrowed from Robert Lyons Danly (1981: 162) characterise most aptly the essence of Higuchi Ichiyō’s awesome ambition, formidable talent, and extraordinary achievement in the course of a life that remained so short (1872–1896), “a life that in its vicissitudes has become something of a symbol to the Japanese – of the old Buddhist belief in the vanity of all things, of the precariousness involved in passing from one age into another” (Danly 1981: vii). Higuchi’s [...]

• Details
• Contents