Fukuda Chiyo-ni (福田千代尼, 1703 - 2 October 1775) or Kaga no Chiyo (加賀千代女) was a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

of the

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...

and a

Buddhist nun Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...

. She is widely regarded as one of the greatest poets of

haiku is a type of short form poetry originally from Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases that contain a ''kireji'', or "cutting word", 17 '' on'' (phonetic units similar to syllables) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern, and a ''kigo'', or se ...

(then called

hokku is the opening stanza of a Japanese orthodox collaborative linked poem, '' renga'', or of its later derivative, '' renku'' (''haikai no renga''). From the time of Matsuo Bashō (1644–1694), the ''hokku'' began to appear as an independent poem, ...

). Some of Chiyo's best works include The Morning Glory, Putting up my hair, and Again the women. Being one of the few women haiku poets in pre-modern

Japanese literature Japanese literature throughout most of its history has been influenced by cultural contact with neighboring Asian literatures, most notably China and its literature. Early texts were often written in pure Classical Chinese or , a Chinese-Japanes ...

, Chiyo-ni has been seen an influential figure. Before her time, haiku by women were often dismissed and ignored. She began writing Haiku at seven and by age seventeen she had become very popular all over

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

and she continued writing throughout her life. Influenced by the renowned poet

Matsuo Bashō born then was the most famous poet of the Edo period in Japan. During his lifetime, Bashō was recognized for his works in the collaborative '' haikai no renga'' form; today, after centuries of commentary, he is recognized as the greatest ma ...

but emerging and as independent figure with a unique voice in her own right, Chiyo-ni dedication toward her career not only paved a way for her career but it also opened a path for other women to follow. Chiyo-ni is known as a "forerunner, who played the role of encouraging international cultural exchange". She is perhaps best known for this haiku: Today, the

morning glory Morning glory (also written as morning-glory) is the common name for over 1,000 species of flowering plants in the family Convolvulaceae, whose current taxonomy and systematics are in flux. Morning glory species belong to many genera, some of ...

is a favorite flower for the people of her home town, because she left a number of poems on that flower.Patricia Donegan and Yoshie Ishibashi. ''Chiyo-ni: Woman Haiku Master'', Tuttle, 1996. p256 Shokouji temple in Hakusan contains a display of her personal effects.

Biography

Chiyo-ni was born in Matto,

Kaga Province was a province of Japan in the area that is today the south and western portion of Ishikawa Prefecture in the Hokuriku region of Japan. Kaga bordered on Echizen, Etchū, Hida, and Noto Provinces. It was part of Hokurikudō Circuit. Its abbr ...

(now Hakusan,

Ishikawa Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu island. Ishikawa Prefecture has a population of 1,140,573 (31 October 2019) and has a geographic area of 4,186 km2 (1,616 sq mi). Ishikawa Prefecture borders Toyama Prefecture to ...

), in February 1703, the eldest daughter of a scroll mounter. At an early age, Chiyo-ni was introduced to art and poetry, and she began writing haiku poetry at the age of seven. By the age of seventeen, she had become very popular all over Japan for her poetry. Her poems, although mostly dealing with

nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...

, work for a unity of nature with humanity. Her own life was that of the

haikai ''Haikai'' (Japanese 俳諧 ''comic, unorthodox'') may refer in both Japanese and English to ''haikai no renga'' (renku), a popular genre of Japanese linked verse, which developed in the sixteenth century out of the earlier aristocratic renga. I ...

poets who made their lives and the world they lived in one with themselves, living a simple and humble life. She was able to make connections by being observant and carefully studying the unique things around her ordinary world and writing them down. At age twelve, Chiyo-ni's studied under two haiku poets who had themselves apprenticed with the great poet

, and many in her time saw her as one of Bashō's true heirs, both in her poetry and in her humble attitude of warm awareness toward the world and her simple living. She studied Basho's style of writing poems in her early years, although she did develop on her own as an independent figure with her own unique voice. She was well aware of being considered Bashō's heir and on a portrait of Bashō she wrote in

calligraphy Calligraphy (from el, link=y, καλλιγραφία) is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instrument. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "t ...

: She appears to say that while she did listen to him, she also did not copy him, "not to listen, fine too." In around 1720 she married a servant of the Fukuoka family of

Kanazawa is the capital city of Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 466,029 in 203,271 households, and a population density of 990 persons per km2. The total area of the city was . Overview Cityscape File:もてな ...

, and had one child with him, a son, who died in infancy. Her husband died of disease not long after in 1722. She valued her independence too much, and despite her loneliness, she did not remarry, so she returned home to her parents. It may be that after her husband's death Chiyo-ni lived with and cared for her elderly parents and worked in the family’s scroll mounting business. She wrote: After her parents died, she adopted a married couple to carry on the family business and in 1754, at the age of fifty-two (by

East Asian age reckoning Countries in the East Asian cultural sphere (China, Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and their diasporas) have traditionally used specific methods of reckoning a person's numerical age based not on their birthday but the calendar year, and what age one is ...

), Chiyo-ni chose to become a

. "Not", she said, "in order to renounce the world, but as a way 'to teach her heart to be like the clear water which flows night and day."Jane Hirshfield Chiyo-ni shaved her head and started to live in a temple with other nuns and took the

Buddhist name A Dharma name or Dhamma name is a new name acquired during both lay and monastic Buddhist initiation rituals in Mahayana Buddhism and monastic ordination in Theravada Buddhism (where it is more proper to call it Dhamma or Sangha name). The nam ...

Soen. She continued her writing and lived the rest of her simple yet peaceful life in the manner of

. In 1764, she was chosen to prepare the official gift for

Maeda Shigemichi was an Edo period Japanese samurai, and the 9th ''daimyō'' of Kaga Domain in the Hokuriku region of Japan. He was the 10th hereditary chieftain of the Kanazawa Maeda clan. Shigemichi was born in Kanazawa as Kenjiro (健次郎), the seventh ...

, the

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast, hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and n ...

of her

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...

, to the

Korean Delegation Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl **Korean dialects and the Jeju language ** ...

led by civil minister

Jo Eom Jo Eom (; 1719 – 1777) was a Korean civil minister (''munsin'') in the 18th century during the late period of the Korean Joseon Dynasty (1392–1897). He was also diplomat and ambassador, representing Joseon interests in the 11th Edo period ...

. Chiyo-ni crafted and delivered 21 artworks based on her twenty-one haiku. Chiyo-ni died in 1775.

In popular culture

*The American rock band Red House Painters adapted one of Chiyo's haiku for the chorus of their song "Dragonflies".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fukuda, Chiyo-ni 1703 births 1775 deaths Japanese women poets Japanese writers of the Edo period 18th-century Japanese poets 18th-century Japanese women writers 18th-century Buddhist nuns Japanese Buddhist nuns Japanese haiku poets

Biography

In popular culture

See also

References