#tameko

My Tamako, My Sookee 🥺💗

Day 25: Nijō Ishi, aka Tameko

Nijō Ishi, better known as Tameko, was born into an aristocratic family in late thirteenth-century Japan. Her family were well-known for their poetic endeavors as the namesakes of the Nijō school of five-line waka poetry, and her father, Nijō Tameyo, was a well-known poet who likely taught his daughter.

This prominence secured Tameko a position at court as lady-in-waiting to the empress, and her poetic skills soon became well-known at court. It was here that she met and fell in love with another poet: the emperor’s brother and heir, Prince Takaharu-shinnō. The two married, and over next few years had three children together.

Unfortunately, their happiness was short lived: Tameko died, likely of complications of childbirth, after only five years. Her husband’s forthcoming life, and that of her sons, would be tumultuous: his attempt to restore imperial power after his accession to the throne led to war, exile, and decades of dynastic upheaval.