is a contemporary Japanese writer, translator and poet. Tawara is most famous as a contemporary poet. She is credited with revitalizing the

tanka is a genre of classical Japanese poetry and one of the major genres of Japanese literature. Etymology Originally, in the time of the '' Man'yōshū'' (latter half of the eighth century AD), the term ''tanka'' was used to distinguish "short p ...

for modern Japanese audiences. Her skill as a translator consist of translating classical Japanese into modern Japanese, for example books such as the '' Man'yōshū'' and the ''

Taketori Monogatari is a (fictional prose narrative) containing elements of Japanese folklore. Written by an unknown author in the late 9th or early 10th century during the Heian period, it is considered the oldest surviving work in the form. The story detail ...

''.

Biography

She was born in 1962 in Osaka Prefecture, and moved to

Fukui Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshū. Fukui Prefecture has a population of 778,943 (1 June 2017) and has a geographic area of 4,190 km2 (1,617 sq mi). Fukui Prefecture borders Ishikawa Prefecture to the north, G ...

when she was 14 years old. In 1981, she graduated from

Waseda University , mottoeng = Independence of scholarship , established = 21 October 1882 , type = Private , endowment = , president = Aiji Tanaka , city = Shinjuku , state = Tokyo , country = Japan , students = 47,959 , undergrad = 39,382 , postgrad ...

with a degree in Japanese literature. Under the influence of the poet Sasaki Yukitsuna, she began to write tanka. After graduation, Tawara began teaching at

Kanagawa Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-densest at . Its geographic area of makes it fifth-smallest. Kanag ...

's Hashimoto High School, and she taught there until 1989. She wrote a 50 poem sequence, '' August Morning'' (八月の朝), which received the 32nd Kadokawa Tanka Prize. She combined this collection with other small groups of tanka to release her first major collection of poems, ''Salad Anniversary'' (サラダ記念日) in 1987. It became a bestseller, selling well over 2.6 million copies. This collection went on to receive the 32nd Modern Japanese Poets Association Award. ''Salad Anniversary'' started a phenomenon known as "salad phenomenon", comparable to "bananamania" (coined for the phenomenon caused by the first major book of

Banana Yoshimoto is the pen name of Japanese writer . From 2002 to 2015, she wrote her name in hiragana (). Biography Yoshimoto was born in Tokyo on July 24, 1964, and grew up in a liberal family. Her father is the poet and critic Takaaki Yoshimoto, and her sist ...

). Tawara became a celebrity, and hosted television and radio shows where she extolled the virtues of tanka, and encouraged everyone to write them. She eventually released a collection of tanka sent to her by her fans, edited and selected by her. Tawara's popularity is mainly intertwined with her skill with tanka. She deftly combines modern Japanese subjects with classical poetic forms and grammatical constructions, which both hearken back to the classical days but also makes the tanka more accessible to Japan's modern youth. Also, as opposed to the tanka of the classical era, Tawara's poems possess a lighter attitude and a crisp tone, as well as a universality that helps to make her poetry understood by all. Tawara has a website entitled ''The Chocolate Box'', where she has a list of her works and a brief profile. She also was touched by the amount of fan mail she received and she sent responses in the forms of recordings.

Major works

*'' Salad Anniversary'' (サラダ記念日) 987**''Salad Anniversary'', trans. Jack Stamm. Tokyo: Kawade Shobo Shinsha, 1988 **''Salad Anniversary'', trans. Juliet Winters Carpenter. Kodansha America, 1990. . *'' The Palm of the Wind's Hand'' (かぜのてのひら) 991*'' Chocolate Revolution'' (チョコレート革命)

997 Year 997 (Roman numerals, CMXCVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Japan * 1 February: Empress Teishi gives birth to Princess Shushi - she is the first ...

References

External links

Official site

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tawara, Machi 1962 births Living people 20th-century Japanese poets Japanese women poets 20th-century Japanese women writers