Hasegawa Shigure

Hasegawa Shigure
Native name
長谷川 時雨
BornHasegawa Yasu (長谷川 ヤス)
(1879-10-01)October 1, 1879
Tokyo, Japan
DiedAugust 22, 1941(1941-08-22) (aged 61)
Tokyo, Japan
OccupationPlaywright, novelist
Nationality Japan
CitizenshipJapanese
Years active1901-1941
Notable works
  • Ejima Ikushima
  • Old Tales of Nihonbashi
RelativesHaruko Hasegawa (sister)
Japanese name
Kanji長谷川時雨
Hiraganaはせがわ しぐれ

Hasegawa Shigure (長谷川 時雨; 1879–1941) was a Japanese playwright and editor of a literary journal. Hasegawa was the only woman to be featured in three volumes of the Meiji bungaku zenshū ("Collected works of Meiji literature"), a collection published by Chikuma Shobō, and she had the title joryū bundan no ōgosho ("great writer of the woman’s literary community’"); Barbara Hartley, author of "The space of childhood memories: Hasegawa Shigure and Old Nihonbashi," cited these facts when describing Hasegawa as "a major literary figure" of the era prior to World War II.

Hartley wrote that "Shigure’s work has been largely overlooked in English-language scholarship" and that this may have been due to a perception that she supported militaristic elements that existed in Japan before World War II.

Her family members; second husband, Mikami Otokichi (三上 於菟吉); and good friends, including Onoe Kikugorō VI (六代目 尾上 菊五郎); all called her O-Yatchan.