Lost Leaves: Women Writers of Meiji Japan
Rebecca L. Copeland
Most Japanese literary historians have suggested that the Meiji Period (1868-1912) was devoid of women writers but for the brilliant exception of Higuchi Ichiyo (1872-1896).  Rebecca Copeland challenges this claim by examining in fascinating detail the lives and literary careers of three of Ichiyo's peers, each representative of the diversity and ingenuity of the period: Miyake Kaho (1868-1944), Wakamatsu Shizuko (1864-1896), and Shimizu Shikin (1868-1933).  In a carefully researched introduction, Copeland establishes the context for the development of female literary expression.  She follows this with chapters on each of the women under consideration.  Interspersed throughout are excerpts from works under discussion, most never before translated, offering an invluable window into this forgotten world of women's writing.