The Same Moon Shines on All: The Lives and Selected Poems of Yanagawa Seigan and Kōran

Yanagawa Seigan (1789-1858) and his wife Kōran (1804-79) were two of the great poets of nineteenth-century Japan. They practiced the art of traditional Sinitic poetry--works written in literary Sinitic, or classical Chinese, a language of enduring importance far beyond China’s borders. Together, they led itinerant lives, traveling around Japan teaching poetry and selling calligraphy. Seigan established Edo-period Japan’s largest poetry society and attained nationwide renown as a literary figure, as well as taking part in stealthy political activities in the years before the Meiji Restoration. Kōran was one of the most accomplished female composers of Sinitic poetry in Japanese history. After her husband’s death, she was arrested and imprisoned for six months as part of a crackdown on political reform. Seigan and Kōran’s works at once display mastery of a poetic tradition and depict Japan on the brink of monumental change.

The Same Moon Shines on All explores the world of Seigan and Kōran, pairing an in-depth account of their lives and times with an inviting selection of their poetry. The book features eminent Sinologist Jonathan Chaves’s translations of more than 130 poems by Seigan and more than 50 by Kōran, each annotated and followed by the original Chinese text. An introduction by Matthew Fraleigh, a specialist in Japan’s Sinitic literature, offers insight into the historical and literary context as well as the poems themselves. Approachable and delightful, this book makes the riches of Japanese Sinitic poetry available to a range of readers.

Jonathan Chaves is professor of Chinese at the George Washington University. His many books include Every Rock a Universe: The Yellow Mountains and Chinese Travel Writing (2013), winner of the American Literary Translators Association’s Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Prize.

Matthew Fraleigh is associate professor of East Asian literature and culture at Brandeis University. He has published New Chronicles of Yanagibashi and Diary of a Journey to the West: Narushima Ryūhoku Reports From Home and Abroad (2010) and Plucking Chrysanthemums: Narushima Ryūhoku and Sinitic Literary Traditions in Modern Japan (2016).