“Japanese poet. Akiko’s first volume of tanka, Midaregami (1901; tr Tangled Hair, 1935) startled her contemporaries with its bold affirmation of female sexuality and exerted an enormous influence on later poets who sought release from semifeudal morality as well as conventional forms of tanka. Akiko’s translations of Japanese classics, such as the Tale of Genji, into the modern vernacular were highly influential, as were her pioneering and passionate essays on women’s rights.”
Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.
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