Ichiyo Higuchi: stories, waka and diaries

Higuchi entered Haginoya in 1886 to study waka with Utako Nakajima. After her father died in 1889, she helped support the household. She began studying fiction with Tosui Nakarai in 1891. Publication of Umoregi in 1892 and contact with the Bungakukai circle placed her work within networks of mentors, editors and magazines.

Livelihood and fiction

In August 1893, Higuchi opened a shop selling household goods and sweets in Ryusenji-cho, where she lived with her mother and sister. Poor sales led her to close it and move to Maruyama-Fukuyamacho in May 1894. Observing the neighbourhood and children who visited the shop contributed to her fiction. Between December 1894 and January 1896 she produced a concentrated sequence of major stories, including Otsugomori, Nigorie, Jusanya and the serial Takekurabe. The latter follows children approaching adulthood near Yoshiwara, including Midori and Shinnyo.

The two-yen loan in Otsugomori

Otsugomori centres on two yen needed by Omine, a servant, to help the uncle who raised her get through the year’s end. When her mistress denies having promised a loan, Omine takes two notes from a drawer. The household’s son, Ishinosuke, later takes the remaining money and leaves a note, so Omine escapes questioning. The ending leaves open whether he knowingly covered for her. The money and the uncertainty about his intentions both shape the story’s resolution.

Takekurabe appeared in instalments in Bungakukai from January 1895 to January 1896, followed by publication of the complete story in Bungei Kurabu in April 1896. Mori Ogai praised it that year. Taito’s Ichiyo Memorial Museum holds an unfinished manuscript from the story’s development. Her eiso, or waka practice notebooks, preserved at Rikkyo University belong to her parallel work as a poet.

Diaries and later remembrance

Higuchi’s diaries record daily life, encounters and writing, offering another form of expression alongside her fiction and waka. She died of tuberculosis in November 1896. Later collected editions, publication of her diaries and museum exhibitions brought these different kinds of writing to further readers. In 1902, Kaburaki Kiyokata painted Grave of Higuchi Ichiyo, bringing together her grave and Midori from Takekurabe. This is a later reader’s response to her fiction, not a portrait made during her lifetime. Her portrait also appeared on the 5,000-yen note introduced in 2004.

A museum founded by local residents

Local residents helped turn remembrance into a public institution. An Ichiyo supporters’ association raised funds to buy land and donated it to Taito City for a museum, which opened in 1961. The neighbourhood that had informed her fiction thus also became a place for preserving and exhibiting her work.