Women Poets of Japan

Great book: 3 sections:the poems themselves,brief biog.of the poets and a review of the historic background.A work of erudition as you would expect from Rexroth.The poetry is excellent and I treasure the book.

I love all kinds of poetry forms, but my favorite ones are the beautiful and Zen like poetry of the Chinese and Japanese. I prefer the shorter poem forms such as haiku but I also love other Asian poetry forms. I have read and wrote reviews on numerous Asian poetry collections and this one (Women Poets of Japan by Kenneth Rexroth and Ikuko Atsumi) is one of the very best I have read lately.Japan has a long history of having many talented women poets. This fantastic collection has twelve hundred years of women poets of amazing creative skill. It also includes the periods these women wrote as well as biographical notes. Some of the poets in this collection are Princess Nukada, Empress Jito, Yosami, wife of Hitomaro, Lady Kii, Kasa no Iratsume, Lady Ise, Lady Ukon, Izumi Shikibu, Lady Sagami, Lady Suwo. Fukuda Chiyo-Ni, Yosano Akiko and many other historically significant Japanese women poets. These women are known for early haiku poetry, modern Tanka poetry, modern haiku poetry, and free verse poetry. This book also has notes on the poets, a brief survey of the women poets of Japan and a table of Japanese historical periods.This beautiful poetry book is nothing short of fantastic. I loved most of the poems, with the exception of some of the free verse poems which I found sometimes tedious and boring. Nevertheless, this is still a wonderful and beautiful poetry collection. This short review cannot do justice to this beautiful collection of poems. If you are a lover of Asian poetry forms this is a book that should be in your collection. Women Poets of Japan is now one of my favorite poetry books.Rating: 5 Stars. Joseph J. Truncale (Author: The Samurai Soul: An old warrior’s poetic tribute).

This is a great and worthwhile collection of poetry for readers interested in Japanese poetry in general, but it's especially enlightening for anyone seeking proof that women have written quality literature (poetry included) since... forever. "Women Poets of Japan" is a useful little sampling of different Japanese women writers, from early periods through to the 20th century. From a purely literary perspective, readers can easily gain an understanding of Japan's different literary periods and their prevailing styles, regardless of gender. Though the collection is obviously inconsistent in terms of tone (which can make a poetry collection less comfortable for straight reading), it is obviously interesting and worthwhile enough to justify purchase or reading. I greatly enjoyed it.

This collection of seventy-seven accomplished women poets spans 1200 years of poetic achievement. It must have been difficult to select representative poets and their poems but this volume succeeds in conveying the aesthetic of the classic poets, haiku poets of the Tokugawa, modern tanka and haiku poets, along with the free verse poets and a section of anonymous geisha songs.The name of each poet has been drawn by master calligrapher, Machi Shunso and adds immeasurably to the reading experience.How these poems resonate through the ages!From Enomoto Seifu-Jo (1731-1814):Everyone is asleepThere is nothing to come betweenthe moon and me.

This all-too-brief collection of poems is wonderful! The only improvements that might be made are: give more than one translation for some of the more difficult poems, and expand the number of poems contained in the collection by a lot! A great book for anyone who likes poetry in general and Japanses poetry in particular.