Early Women Writers

Eifuku Mon'in (Saionji Shoko)

Heian-kyo (modern day Kyoto)

1271-1342

Eifuku Mon'in, or Ex- Empress Eifuku, was consort to Emperor Fushimi during his nine year reign. She wielded considerable influence as a major patron of the arts, and was one of the greatest contributor's to the Gyokuyoshu imperial anthology with the inclusion of forty-nine poems. In both her own work and patronage, Eifuku was a strong proponent of the dynamic Kyogoku school of poetry which opposed the more conservative Nijo school. The second imperial anthology of Kyogoku poets, the Fugashu, also features much of Eifuku's work. [Source:Mulhern, Chieko Irie. Japanese Women Writers: a Bio-critical Sourcebook. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1994.]

Japanese

Poetry

Brower, Robert H., and Earl Miner. "The Late Classical Period." In Japanese Court Poetry. Stanford, CA: Stanford UP, 1961. 338-423. ; Huey, Robert N. Kyogoku Tamekane: Poetry and Politics in Late Kamakura Japan. Stanford: Stanford UP, 1989. ; Carter, Steven D. Waiting for the Wind: Thirty-Six Poets of Japan's Late Medieval Age. New York: Columbia UP, 1989. 140-150. ; Sato, Hiroaki. Japanese Women Poets: An Anthology. New York: Routledge, 2015.