Women Haiku Poets of the Edo Period — Kaga no Chiyojo and Women Who Wrote Haiku in a Man's World

The Existence of Women Poets in the Edo Period

Edo-period haikai looks, to modern eyes, strikingly male-centered. Bashō, Kikaku, Ransetsu, Kyorai, Buson, Issa — nearly every haiku poet in the textbooks is a man. But within Edo society there certainly were women who wrote haiku. Not “there were none,” but only “hard to see.”

The conditions under which women haiku poets lived in Edo-era Japan:

• Education: daughters of wealthy merchant and samurai families had opportunities to learn waka, calligraphy, and haikai
• Venue: it was rare (or forbidden) for women to attend men’s haiku gatherings; women-only, private circles were primary
• Publication: inclusion in anthologies depended on the recommendation of male poets. Some published under male names.
• Life course: marriage, childbirth, and caregiving often forced interruption of haikai

Within these constraints, five particularly notable poets stand out — Kaga no Chiyojo, Den Sutejo, Shūshikijo, Sonojo, and Enomoto Seifu.

Kaga no Chiyojo — “Morning glory — the bucket taken” (1703-1775)

Kaga no Chiyojo (1703-1775) enjoys overwhelming name recognition as a woman poet of the Edo era. Given name Fukumasu Chiyo, born in Mattō (present-day Hakusan City), Kaga (Ishikawa). Her family were mounters (of hanging scrolls and fusuma).

Chiyojo began haikai around age 12, wandered various places, and studied under Kagami Shikō (one of the Shōmon Jittetsu) and further under Uhichi (a Shikō disciple). Recognized for her talent while only 15-16, she became known across the nationwide network of the school.

In Kyōhō 5 (1720), at 17, she married. But her husband died within a few years, and her only son also died young. Widowed early, she returned to her family home, continued the mounter’s business, and kept writing haikai. She took Buddhist vows in her 50s and took the name Soen.

Representative Verses

“Morning glory — the bucket taken, I go for water borrowed” (c. 1720s)

• Asagao — summer to autumn flower (kigo, autumn)
• Tsurube — a bucket for drawing well water
• Going to the well in the morning to draw water, she found morning-glory vines wound around the bucket
• Unwilling to break the flower, she went “to borrow water” at the neighbor’s

“Not breaking the flower, going next door for water” — a gentle consideration presented as her signature verse (traditionally attributed to Chiyojo around 17) known across the country. This verse was already famous in mid-Edo, and Chiyojo was called “Chiyo of the Morning Glory.”

From a modern view: to call this verse “a feminine delicacy” is to impose gender. A man could conceive the same idea. “Care for the flower” is Chiyojo’s individuality, not a “female trait.”

“Waking I looked, lying I looked — the wideness of the mosquito net”

• Night, inside the mosquito net
• Whether waking or lying, the net feels wide
• Traditionally read as mourning her lost husband (or son)

“Wideness” signals the loneliness. A short line inscribes a widow’s mind — another Chiyojo signature.

“Chasing dragonflies — how far has he gone today, I wonder”

• Dragonfly-chasing — a child’s game of catching dragonflies
• A verse recalling the son she lost young
• “How far is he chasing dragonflies today?”

Drawing a deep sense of loss from a single everyday scene. Also a signature Chiyojo verse.

Chiyojo’s View of Haiku

Chiyojo carried on the line of Bashō and Shikō and established a calm style of her own. One could call it a female variation of shōfū’s “wabi and karumi.” But rather than fitting her into a “feminine” frame, it is the modern view to appreciate her as an individual poet’s achievement.

Chiyojo died at 73. She is said to have left about 2,000 verses.

Den Sutejo — Early Direct-Lineage Woman Poet (1633-1698)

Den Sutejo (1633-1698) was born in Kaibara, Tanba (Hyōgo) in 1633 (Kan’ei 10). Seventy years earlier than Chiyojo — a direct female disciple contemporary with Bashō.

The name “Sutejo” is not “to throw away” but reflects “the Edo custom of women’s names,” where “jo” (女) is appended as an honorific at the end of a woman’s name. Her childhood name is said to have been Fuku. She is described as a child prodigy who was already writing verses at age six.

Representative Verse

“A snowy morning — the traces of geta shaped like the character ‘two’” (a verse attributed to her at 6)

• A snowy morning
• Geta prints in two rows like the character 二 (two)

A vivid verse in which a six-year-old sees the geta prints as “the character ‘two.’” Passed down through the Edo era as “the verse of the prodigy Sutejo.” The most famous child haiku of the early Edo period.

Sutejo married at 25, bore five children, but at 40 lost her husband and took Buddhist vows. She lived in the Bankan-an in Kyoto and there are records of her meeting Bashō and exchanging verses. Died at 66.

Shūshikijo — Woman Poet of Edo (1669-1725)

Shūshikijo (1669-1725), given name O-Aki, was a disciple of Kikaku (one of the Shōmon Jittetsu) born in Edo. Sources differ on her lineage — variously described as coming from a courtesan’s background or from a merchant family.

At 13, a verse she composed at a cherry-blossom viewing at Ueno became famous.

Representative Verse

“Cherry blossoms at the well — take care — drinking sake”

• Cherry blossoms at the well
• Dangerous (you might fall in the well)
• (Cherry-viewing visitors) drunk on sake

A verse in which 13-year-old Shūshiki, in an adult gathering, warned of danger with wit. Composed at a cherry-viewing, it was praised by Kikaku, spread by word of mouth, and made her instantly famous in Edo. She soon became a disciple of Kikaku in earnest.

Shūshikijo died at 56. As a woman of the Edo school, several hundred of her verses survive.

Sonojo — Woman Poet of Ise, Close to Bashō (?-1726)

Sonojo (?-1726), given name Sono, was the wife of the doctor Shiba Ichiyū of Ise Yamada (present Ise, Mie). One of the few women poets who met Bashō in person and exchanged verses on his visits to Ise (in 1689 and other times).

Her husband, also a poet, hosted Bashō together with Sonojo. Bashō himself praised Sonojo’s verse, in a record preserved in the Shinseki Kaishi.

Representative Verse

“On white chrysanthemums — no dust when I look with care”

• Shiragiku — white chrysanthemum (autumn kigo)
• Looking closely with care
• Not one speck of dust

A verse rendering the purity of the white chrysanthemum directly: “there is no dust.” A famous verse of which Bashō is said to have remarked, “I have no verse to answer this.”

“Seeing a foreign ship, then salt is fired”

• Morokoshi — a Tang (Chinese) ship (Ise faced the sea and had international ports)
• Firing salt (work in the salt fields)

A scene on the seashore of Ise. Sonojo died around 65. As a woman poet who was close with Bashō, she holds a place in modern haiku history.

Enomoto Seifu — Mid-Edo Professional Woman Poet (1732-1814)

Enomoto Seifu (1732-1814) was born in Kōfu, Kai (Yamanashi) in 1732 (Kyōhō 17). Daughter of a village head. She went to Edo young and became a disciple of the Edo-school poet Kaya Shirao. A generation 30 years after Chiyojo.

Seifu was “an independent professional woman of haikai” — rare in the Edo era. Never marrying, she was active as a woman master of the Edo school, with her own disciples and published anthologies. An extremely exceptional way of life for an Edo woman.

Representative Verse

“A blind woman — accustomed to see, blooms — the white peony”

• Mekura-jo — a blind woman
• Blooming “accustomed to seeing” the white peony

A verse containing a paradox: a woman who cannot see is “accustomed to see” the blooming peony. The rendering of “seeing” a flower through touch and scent shows Seifu’s extraordinariness.

Seifu died at 83. Completing an unmarried life, she was a rare woman poet who held presence in the mid-Edo Edo school.

Other Women Poets of the Edo Period

Beyond the five above, many women poets existed in the Edo period:

• Matsunaga Kyosei — daughter of Matsunaga Teitoku; a woman of the Teimon school
• Kajijo — woman poet of Kyoto contemporary with Bashō
• Chigetsu-ni — a nun of Ōtsu, close with Bashō
• Senkaku — a mid-Edo woman poet
• Futetsu — a woman poet of Kyoto
• Kuroyanagi Shōha — a woman among Buson’s disciples (some sources say male)

These women wrote haikai each in her own place and time, active on the fringes of the male masters’ networks. This area still awaits excavation in the history of haiku; in the 21st century, reassessment by researchers is progressing.

The Frame “Joryū Haikai” in Edo

From the mid-Edo period, the concept of “joryū haikai” (women’s haikai) arose. Anthologies of women poets’ works and introductory books on haikai aimed at women were published. Examples:

• Sanjūroku Onna Kasen (mid-18th century) — anthology selecting 36 Edo-period women poets
• Keishū Haikai — a term meaning women’s haikai (keishū = “talented woman”)

But these were framings of “women’s poetry” as seen by men, placing women poets in “a separate special frame from men.” A modern view questions this framing itself.

Change in “Joryū” from Meiji On

The tradition of Chiyojo and other Edo women poets was carried on by the women poets of the Meiji era and later (Mitsuhashi Takajo, Sugita Hisajo, Hashimoto Takako, Nakamura Teijo, and others). After the Meiji Restoration, with expanded educational opportunity for women, the layer of women poets became incomparably richer than in the Edo period.

Today (in the 21st century), gender balance has advanced, and the term “joryū haijin” itself is felt to be uncomfortable. Modern poets Kōno Saki, Satō Ayaka, Noguchi Ruri are active simply as “poets,” not “joryū.”

The Significance of Edo Women Poets

The significance of Edo women poets in modern haiku history:

1. Refuting the simplification of “male-centered Edo haikai” — in fact women too took part
2. A perspective from everyday life — putting into verse the domestic, child-rearing, widow’s life that men missed in public duty and pleasure
3. Oral and manuscript transmission — many works survive from disciple-to-disciple oral and manuscript transmission, since anthology inclusion was limited
4. 21st-century rediscovery — in modern gender studies and haiku scholarship, the buried works of women poets are being unearthed

Toward the Next Article

We have traced the people who bore the lineage of haiku. But the greatest element that makes haiku itself — kigo — has been treated only in an overview (article 15). Over five articles from here, we introduce the leading kigo of spring, summer, autumn, winter, and the new year — some 100-200 in total — each with its “true sense” (hon’i) and representative verses. The next article steps into the world of spring kigo — sakura, uguisu, ume, kasumi, risshun, yukidoke, tauchi, hina matsuri.