Okamoto Kanoko

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Okamoto Kanoko (岡本かの子, March 1, 1889 - February 18, 1939) was a Japanese author, tanka poet, and Buddhism scholar during the Taisho and Showa periods. Her maiden name was Onuki Kano. She was born in Aoyama, Akasaka-ku (present day Minato-ku), Tokyo where she developed an affinity for music and traditional dance. She was also fond of classical literature, especially Genji monogatari and Kokin-wakashu, from early childhood.

Because she did not begin writing actively until her later years, most of her works were published posthumously. Her literary style favored a voluptuous aesthetic.

She was influenced greatly by her older brother who studied at the First Higher School and Tokyo University. While still a student at the Atomi Gakuen girls' high school, Kanoko called on the renowned poet, Yosano Akiko, and this encounter prompted her to start contributing tanka to the poetry magazine Myojo (Bright Star). Later, she played an active part as a key contributor to another journal, Subaru (The Pleiades).

In 1910, she married cartoonist Okamoto Ippei and their son, the famous avant-garde painter Okamoto Taro, was born the next year.

She published Karoki-netami, the first of her five tanka anthologies, in 1912. After releasing her fourth tanka anthology "Waga Saishu Kashu" (My Last Anthology) in 1929, she become a novelist. She took her whole family to Europe to complete her literary studies. They travelled to Paris, London, Berlin and around America, returning to Japan in 1932.

After returning home, Kanoko was overwhelmed by her work as a researcher of Buddhism, but she found time to write Tsuru wa Yamiki (The Dying Crane). Published in 1936 it was a novelette about the last days of the writer Akutagawa Ryunosuke, for the influential magazine Bungakukai, which started her life in the literary world.

Kanoko stayed at an inn near Kamakura station in the summer of 1923, and it was there that she met Akutagawa Ryunosuke. This encounter became the inspiration for her novelette, Tsuru wa Yamiki.

After that, she published many more works in quick succession, such as Hahako Jojou (The Relationship between Mother and Child), Kingyo Ryouran (Goldfish Blooming), and Rogishou (Portrait of an Old Geisha). Her life was ended prematurely in 1939 when she died of a brain disorder. She was 49 years old.