Histories of women in and around Japan, 1868-1945

Takasu Hisako was born in 1817 in the Choshu domain (modern-day Yamaguchi Prefecture in the south of Japan), the daughter and later the wife of samurai. Widowed young, she lived with her mother and two daughters in a household of women. Hisako, notably a cheerful and outgoing personality, was exceptionally fond of poetry of all kinds as well as music; she became friendly with various young (male) players of the three-stringed shamisen and invited them to perform at her home, followed by drinks, dinner, and perhaps staying the night. They may have belonged to the “untouchable” caste now called hisabetsu burakumin, the leatherworkers and butchers who were not permitted to associate freely with the upper classes from which Hisako came. Her relatives objected. Hisako argued against class distinctions, claiming her right to associate freely with whom she pleased—“I had an ordinary relationship with an ordinary person, that’s all”—but the standards of the time prevailed and in 1853 she was put into Noyama Prison.

This jail contained just eleven prisoners, among whom was to be the young educator and radical Yoshida Shoin. Whether he and Hisako fell in love is a matter of interpretation, but they certainly became close during Shoin’s poetry sessions with the other inmates. Hisako’s daughter Ito may have visited her in prison in the company of Shoin’s younger sister Sugi Fumi (also known as Katori Miwako). Hisako and Shoin wrote each other poems when he was released and upon his later travels; she gave him a handkerchief which he treasured. In 1868, when the systems changed under the Meiji Restoration, she was released from prison (Shoin was already almost ten years dead, having been executed at age 29 for attempting to overturn the shogunate); she led a quiet life, away from her family, and lived to be an old woman, dying in 1904.


Works cited
Ishii
https://www.jef.or.jp/journal/pdf/pioneers0309.pdf English site with a thoughtful history of Yoshida Shoin, touching on Hisako in detail. CW tiresomely ableist with regard to Shoin’s brother.
https://note.com/jin2186/n/n69eeabb57ae6 This Japanese site includes a lot of detail, a photo of Hisako, and a floor plan of Noyama Prison; it is also highly gossipy and sexist and I don’t trust it above half.
http://rekisifan.blog134.fc2.com/blog-entry-200.html Japanese site with an easily readable description of Hisako and Shoin’s poems to each other.
https://jpreki.com/takasu/ Fairly straightforward Japanese account of Hisako’s life.