Women of Japanese Poetry

The Edo period (1603–1868) was a time of strict Neo-Confucian norms that dictated that a woman should be a submissive daughter, wife, and mother, whose world was confined within the walls of the home. But was this reality really so uniform?

In this collection, we propose to go beyond the stereotypical image of the geisha and look at the authentic, multifaceted role of women in shaping the cultural landscape of Japan. We will see this by examining the fate of the poet Kobayashi Issa and his relationships with women, as well as studying the history of the laws and prohibitions of that time (such as the famous Hakone checkpoint).

This book is an immersion into the private, "inner" world of Japan during the Edo period. It is a story of how Japanese women lived, loved, suffered, and sought freedom. They left a deep, albeit often "invisible," mark on history.