Ichiyo Higuchi (1872-1896) was born into a prosperous family whose fortunes declined sharply over the course of her childhood. After the deaths of her father and brother, she and her mother and sisters moved to a house in a poor Tokyo neighbourhood adjacent to the Yoshiwara pleasure district, and survived by running a small shop and taking in laundry. In an effort to shore up the family finances, Higuchi began publishing her short stories, which quickly earned her a reputation as a major new writer. Over a brief period she wrote some two dozen stories, thousands of poems and an extensive diary, drawing inspiration from her life among Tokyo's working classes, her family's misfortunes, and her disappointed love for an older writer. She died of tuberculosis shortly after the beginning of this brilliant literary career, aged only twenty-four.