Yanagihara Byakuren - Yanagihara Byakuren/Yanagiwara Byakuren

Japanese: 柳原白蓮 - やなぎはらびゃくれん/やなぎわらびゃくれん

A Japanese poet. Her real name was Akiko Yanagiwara. She was one of the Three Beauties of the Taisho Era. She is known for the Byakuren Incident.
Born in Tokyo in 1885. Her father was Count Yanagiwara Maemitsu, and her mother was Ryo, a fallen samurai who had been one of his concubines and a geisha in Yanagibashi. Maemitsu was the older brother of Yanagiwara Naruko, the birth mother of Emperor Taisho, and Akiko was Emperor Taisho's cousin. In 1894, she was adopted by Viscount Kitakoji Yorimitsu, a distant relative. In 1900, she was forced to marry Kitakoji's eldest son Suketake at the age of 15, but later dropped out of school due to pregnancy. She gave birth to her eldest son, Isamitsu, but in 1905 she divorced and returned to her parents' home, leaving Isamitsu at the Kitakoji family.
At the time, appearances were highly valued in aristocratic families, and a divorced daughter was not allowed to enter the main Yanagiwara residence as it was considered shameful. Instead, she lived in the retirement home of Maemitsu's wife Hatsuko, finding comfort in reading books and tanka poetry. In 1908, in order to resume her studies, which she had given up due to marriage and childbirth, she enrolled as a boarding student at Toyo Eiwa Girls' School, a Canadian mission school in Azabu, Tokyo. There she met Muraoka Hanako, eight years younger than her, and they became close friends, calling each other "Hana-chan" and "Akira-sama." Around this time, she joined the tanka poetry society Chikuhaku-kai, run by Sasaki Nobutsuna.
Ten years later, Hanako had an arranged marriage with Ito Den'emon, a Kyushu mining magnate who was 25 years older than her, and the following year she married him as his second wife. The arranged marriage between an earl and a mining magnate, mismatched in age, status, and education, caused a stir in the public and was serialised in the Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shimbun newspaper. Hanako was shocked by this news and broke off her friendship with Akiko.
After remarrying, she was called the "Queen of Tsukushi," but she could not find meaning in life and wrote letters to Hanako pouring out her feelings. This prompted them to rekindle their friendship. She wrote tanka poems about her loneliness and suffering, and continued to publish them in the Chikuhaku-kai magazine, Kokoro no Hana. It was around this time that she began using the pen name Byakuren.
In 1946, she eloped with socialist Miyazaki Ryusuke. This is known as the Byakuren Incident. At the time, adultery was a crime punishable by imprisonment of up to two years under the old criminal code. Akiko issued a letter of estrangement to the Ito family in the Osaka Asahi Shimbun newspaper, and two days later Den'emon's letter of protest was published in the Osaka Mainichi Shimbun newspaper, creating a sensational incident. In 1947, she gave birth to her first son, Kaori, but with her father-in-law's large debts, they struggled to make ends meet, and when Ryusuke fell ill with tuberculosis, she supported herself by writing. In 1950, her first daughter, Fuki, was born. From 1960, she became the editor of the poetry magazine Kototama.
In 1945, he lost his daughter Kaori, who had been sent to fight as a student soldier, in an air raid by the US military. From that experience, he established the International Association of Grieving Mothers and began campaigning for peace all over Japan. Although he lost his eyesight due to glaucoma, he spent his later years peacefully composing poetry, and passed away in 1967 at the age of 81.
His major works include the tanka collections "Fumie" and "Maboroshi no Hana," and the poetry collection "Kigyo no Kage."

(Natsuko Kasai, Freelance Writer / 2014)

Source : "Chiezo" published by Asahi Shimbun Publications Co., Ltd. About Chiezo

Japanese:

日本の歌人。本名は柳原燁子(あきこ)。大正三美人の1人。白蓮事件で知られる。
1885年、東京に生まれる。父は柳原前光(さきみつ)伯爵、母は妾の1人で柳橋の芸妓となっていた没落士族出身のりょう。前光は大正天皇の生母・柳原愛子(なるこ)の兄で、燁子は大正天皇の従妹に当たる。94年、遠縁に当たる子爵・北小路隨光(よりみつ)の養女となる。98年、華族女学校に入学。1900年に、15歳で北小路家の長男資武(すけたけ)と結婚させられ、その後、妊娠により女学校を退学。長男・功光(いさみつ)を出産するも、05年、功光を北小路家に残して離婚し、実家に戻る。
当時、華族の家庭では体裁が重んじられ、離婚した娘は恥とされて柳原家本邸に入ることができず、前光の正妻・初子の隠居所で読書や短歌をなぐさめとして暮らす。結婚・出産のために断念した学業を再開するため、08年、東京･麻布のカナダ系ミッションスクール、東洋英和女学校に寄宿生として編入する。8歳年下の村岡花子と出会い、「花ちゃん」「燁さま」と呼び合う「腹心の友」となる。この頃、佐佐木信綱が主催する短歌結社竹柏会に入門する。
10年、25歳年上で九州の炭鉱王、伊藤伝右衛門と見合いし、翌年、後妻として嫁ぐ。年齢・身分・教養のいずれも不釣り合いな、伯爵家と炭鉱王の政略結婚として世間を騒がせ、東京日日新聞では連載で大きく報じられた。花子はこのニュースにショックを受け、燁子と絶交に至る。
再婚後は「筑紫の女王」と呼ばれたが、生きがいを感じられずに、花子に心情を吐露する手紙を書いている。これをきっかけに親交が再開する。孤独や苦しみを短歌に詠み、竹柏会の機関誌「心の花」に発表し続けた。この頃から、白蓮の号を用いる。
21年、社会主義者の宮崎龍介と駆け落ちする。いわゆる「白蓮事件」である。当時は姦通罪が存在し、旧刑法では2年以下の懲役となる行為であった。燁子は伊藤家に対して大阪朝日新聞紙上で絶縁状を発表し、その2日後には大阪毎日新聞紙上に伝右衛門の抗議文が掲載されるなどして、センセーショナルな事件となった。22年に長男・香織を出産するも、義父が抱える多額の負債もあって、生活は苦しく、龍介が結核に倒れた時期は、文筆で生計を支えた。25年、長女・蕗苳(ふき)が誕生。35年以降、歌誌「ことたま」を主宰する。
45年、学徒出陣していた香織を米軍による空爆で亡くす。その経験から、「国際悲母の会」を立ち上げ、各地で平和を訴える活動を起こす。緑内障で視力を失いながらも、歌を詠む穏やかな晩年を過ごし、67年、81歳で死去。
主な作品に、歌集『踏絵』、『幻の華』、詩集『几帳のかげ』など。

(葛西奈津子　フリーランスライター／ 2014年)

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