The chief priest of a Shinto shrine in Kobe said Monday he has discovered 544 pages of tanka written between 1920 and 1940 that were critiqued by acclaimed poet, feminist and educator Akiko Yosano.
Takahisa Kato, 65, head priest at Ikuta Shrine and professor emeritus at Kobe Women's University, said he found the poems, written by leading Yosano disciple Akiko Niwa, in a rattan box he bought at a secondhand bookshop in Kobe.
Yosano, who died of a stroke in 1942 at age 63, won acclaim for her passionate and sensual reinterpretations of classical poetry. Her works include a 1901 collection of 400 tanka titled "Midaregami" ("Tangled Hair").
In one of her poems, she indirectly criticized Japan's aggression by expressing her concern for her brother, who was conscripted into the Imperial Japanese Army for the 1904-1905 Russo-Japanese War.