更新日：2010年7月5日

Shiga Mitsuko

Shiga Mitsuko, tanka poet, was born in 1885 in Nagano Prefecture. Her real name was Ota Mitsu. After graduating from the Nagano Normal School, she spent two years as a teacher. During this time, she met Ota Mizuho and joined the Kono-hana Kai, a tanka coterie, and began to compose verses herself. She entered the Tokyo Women’s Higher Normal School (now Ochanomizu University) in 1906 and on graduation, she married Ota.

While teaching at a girls school, she joined Ota’s tanka magazine, Cho-on, which he founded in 1915. She contributed tanka verses to the magazine and helped in its overall running. On Ota’s death in 1955, she took over responsibility for Cho-on with her son, Ota Seikyu. From 1957 to 1965, she also served as a selector of the verses submitted for the New Year’s poetry reading at the Imperial Palace.

Representative examples of her verse anthologies include "Fuji no Mi" (Wisteria beans), "Asa Tsuki" (Morning moon), "Asa Ginu" (Linen silk) and a complete collection of her tanka. She has also written "Waka dokuhon" (A guide to waka verse), "Dento to Gendai Waka" (Tradition and Modern Waka), and "Kamakura Zakki" (Kamakura miscellany).

Mitsuko and her husband Ota Mizuho began to live in Ogigayatsu, Kamakura, in 1934, calling their retreat, Yo-yo Sanso. What began as a quiet getaway became their permanent home from 1939. Mitsuko died there in 1976 at the age of 91. She wrote many verses about Kamakura.