was a Japanese novelist, essayist, and poet. Miyake has long been associated with ''joryū bungaku'' ("women's literature"), acknowledged as the first woman to have written in the modern period.
Her most notable work is ''Yabu no uguisu'' (藪の鶯, lit. "Warbler in the Grove"), published in 1888.
Miyake was born Tatsuko Tanabe in
Edo
Edo ( ja, , , "bay-entrance" or "estuary"), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo.
Edo, formerly a ''jōkamachi'' (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the ''de facto'' capital of ...
(renamed
Tokyo the same year) as the oldest daughter of government official Taichi Tanabe. An attendant of Tokyo Women's Normal School (now
Ochanomizu University
is a women's university in the Ōtsuka neighborhood of Bunkyō-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
Ochanomizu University is one of the top national universities in Japan.
Ochanomizu is the name of a Tokyo neighborhood where the university was founded.
Hi ...
), she also studied with female poet
Utako Nakajima (1841−1903) at Nakajima's private school titled Haginoya. The success of Miyake's ''Yabu no uguisu'', published before her graduate,
motivated Haginoya fellow student
Ichiyō Higuchi to become a professional writer herself.
In 1892, Miyake married philosopher and journalist
Setsurei Miyake. She continued to write short stories and essays.
In 1920, Miyake and her husband published ''Josei nihonjin'' ("Japanese Women"), a magazine on women's issues.
References
External links
"Akebonozome: A Cloth Dyed in Rainbow Colors" (story)
19th-century Japanese women writers
1868 births
1943 deaths
Ochanomizu University alumni
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