HIGUCHI ICHIYO IN THE INNOVATION PROCESS OF EARLY MODERN JAPANESE LITERATURE AND THE PEDAGOGY OF JAPANESE LITERATURE IN GENERAL EDUCATION SCHOOLS

Abstract

ABSTRACT

Writing under the pen name Ichiyo (meaning “a single leaf”), Higuchi Ichiyo (1872 – 1896) transcended the limitations of her brief yet turbulent 24 year life to become a cultural and intellectual icon of Japan, later commemorated on the Japanese currency. Comprising 21 novellas and approximately 4,000 tanka poems, her oeuvre is recognized by posterity as marking a critical transition from medieval to early modern and modern literature during the late 19th and early 20th centuries—a period defined by the profound collision of Western and Asian influences in Japan. Adopting cultural and poetics approaches, this paper analyzes Higuchi Ichiyo’s pivotal contributions as a pioneering writer navigating the cultural shifts from medieval paradigms to modernity in Japan and broader East Asia. Consequently, the paper proposes pedagogical implications for teaching Japanese literature in Vietnamese general education through cultural and interdisciplinary frameworks. These approaches aim to broaden students' understanding of the modernization process in East Asian culture and literature, draw parallels with Vietnam’s early 20th-century cultural and literary modernization, and foster regional connections through literature education.