Woman and the Body in Modern Japanese Poetry Authors Toshiko Ellis The University of Tokyo Keywords: Japanese poetry, women's poetry, subversion, Yosano Akiko, Sagawa Chika, Ito Hiromi, female body, sexuality, desire Abstract The article focuses on the three contemporary Japanese poets Yosano Akiko, Sagawa Chika and Ito Hiromi as examples of women who break away from the conventions of "women's poetry" and subvert the image of femininity which has been traditionally portrayed in poems written by Japanese women, at the same time that they preserve in their works themes related to the female sex. Taking as connecting point the female body and the way it is positioned in relation to the outside world, the article analyzes how Yosano, Sagawa and Ito -each in her own subversive way- use different languages to explore the female body itself, as well as themes such as female sexuality, love, motherhood and death. Downloads PDF (Català) Published 2011-11-28 Issue No. 16 (2010): Mujeres en Asia Oriental Section Dossier License The Author retains ownership of the copyright in this article, unless the opposite is expressed, and all rights not expressly granted in this agreement, including the nonexclusive right to reproduce, distribute, perform, and display the article in print or electronic form, and grants, Lectora: revista de dones i textualitat the exclusive rights to print publication of the Article for a period beginning when this Agreement is executed and ending twelve (12) months after the first publicaton of the work in this Journal. After this time, the work will be available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works license, by which the article must be credited to the Author and the Journal be credited as first place of publication. Beginning twelve (12) months after the article´s first publication, the Author is free to enter in seperate, additional contractual agreements for the non-exclusive distribution of the work as published in this journal. The Author is encouraged to post the work online (eg in institutional or subject repositories, or on their website) after the exclusivity period of twelve (12) months has expired, as it can lead to productive exchanges as well as a greater citation of the published work (see The Effect of Open Access).