Portrait of Yosano Akiko

Yosano Akiko

Japanese tanka poet

Lived
1878–1942
Country
Japan

Updated September 2026

About Yosano Akiko

Yosano Shō , known by her pen name Yosano Akiko, was a Japanese author, poet, feminist, pacifist, and social reformer, active in the late Meiji era as well as the Taishō and early Shōwa eras of Japan. She is one of the most noted, and most controversial, post-classical female poets of Japan.

Biography from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.

Sources: book lists and dates from Wikidata and Open Library, ratings from Open Library readers. Last updated September 2026.