Keifukuin Kaoku Gyokuei

Place: Kyoto

Born: 1526

Biography:

Kaoku Gyokuei (慶福院花屋玉栄, 1526 – after 1602) was a Japanese writer, poet, and commentator during the Sengoku period. She is best known for Kaokushō and Gyokueishū, her commentaries on the Tale of Genji. She was the daughter of Konoe Taneie, a nobleman and poet. Gyokuei authored four main works in her lifetime: An emaki of the Tale of Genji (1554), A collection of 54 poems inspired by the chapters of the Tale of Genji (1589), Kaokushō, a four-volume commentary on the Tale of Genji (1594), and Gyokueishū, a one-volume commentary on the Tale of Genji (1602). Her commentaries on the Tale of Genji, which were aimed at fellow aristocratic women, differed from her contemporaries by telling readers to read Genji for pleasure. She also does not rely on quotations from Chinese classics, and writes mainly in hiragana (as opposed to kanji), suggesting that she wanted her work to be accessible to female readers. She wrote a 'short text', Genji monogatari no okori, which she gave to her niece, Lady Chaa. This same text was also copied by Toyotomi Hideyoshi while he was studying the Tale of Genji. Her commentaries on the Tale of Genji were read by many other aristocratic women and remained in circulation as manuscripts until the 20th century.