She was in a box, a box that was her life. She dreamed of breaking out, becoming somebody, living a different life, not the same as her mothers, fathers and stepsister, but one she made on her own, one filled with poetry, vibrant, vital and exciting.
Yosano Akiko (Ho Sho) saw the world, her world through the eyes of a poet, a dreamer, that of someone who could make a difference and be respected as a woman.
Set in Japan in the early twentieth century Girl in a Box captures the life of so many talented young women of the time, raised within strict guidelines, raised to be married to the best suitor, become mothers and work hard, a time when Japan was at the very edges of ‘ the suffragette era’, a time when the Emperor was opening Japan up to the Western world though poetry, art and travel.
Akiko meets the charismatic Tekkan, a poet some few years older, at a poetry reading event, attended by defying her parents, which becomes a regular weekly pattern in her life; one that breaths life and love into her dreams of one day becoming a poet of note.
She commits the ‘crime’ of fleeing from her family to live with Tekkan which begins a life of poverty, deep love, jealousy, travel, tragedy, fame and eventually acceptance. She follows Tekkan to France at the end of the Belle Époque era where she lauded as a celebrity for her captivating Haiku poetry and writing.
Returning to Tokyo she resumes her life as a mother, poet, and writer, always struggling to earn enough money to feed, clothe and house her ever-growing family before good fortune arrives at their door.
Giving birth to thirteen children, eleven of whom survived, children whom while a part of her life, were almost additional, she was work focused, needing to be ‘useful’ in her marriage. She became the first woman to translate the epic Life of Genji into modern Japanese while carving out a career in literary circles that saw her reach Celebrity status.
After the death of her beloved Tekkan in 1935, Akiko now a much older woman looking back on her life, is faced with some raw truths, that life is lived in a box, that of your own making no matter how many times you choose to try and break out of that box.
Based on the life of Yosano Akiko (Ho Sho) 1878-1942, Jean Gordon Kocienda has woven an elegant transition of life which in so many ways reflects the life of women down through the ages, using each year of her life as a milestone. Each year is introduced with poetry of Akiko as she tells her story, before broadening out in her later years as she has time to reflect, to regret and time still to try and make amends to the daughter she believes she wronged so badly.
Kocienda has handled the passing of time with care, as she captures the heartbeat of a woman, a nation, and many of her literary friends as they begin to break away from the tradition that has bound them so tightly.
The Girl on a Box is a story that deserves to be read at a gentle pace to be able to carefully absorb the storyline, to understand the woman who made a difference, the woman who faced the same challenges as the modern woman as she balanced her life from child to lover, mother, wife, poet, writer and eventually lecturer.
Who was she: was a Japanese author, poet, feminist, pacifist, and social reformer, active in the late Meiji era as well as the Taishō and early Shōwa eras of Japan.] She is one of the most noted, and most controversial, post-classical female poets of Japan. Wikipedia
