[About the Book]
ーA moving tale of love and emotion set in Japan more than a thousand years ago-

Izumi Shikibu, one of the most celebrated female poets of Japan’s Heian period, remains a figure shrouded in mystery. This novel boldly imagines her origins as the northeastern land of Hitakami (present-day Tōhoku), weaving historical facts and unanswered questions into a sweeping historical romance.

The story follows a young girl named Omoto, who journeys to the capital, takes the name Izumi, and is carried along by a life of extraordinary fate. Love and separation, duty and poetic passion intertwine, gradually revealing the hidden background behind the creation of The Izumi Shikibu Diary. From where did the profound loneliness and sense of loss embedded in her poems arise? Born in the northern lands yet leaving her love behind in the capital, one woman’s spiritual journey quietly but powerfully moves the reader’s heart.

Guided by the words, “Live beautifully and unwaveringly, like the murmuring of a river,” what path does she ultimately choose?
A richly layered novel filled with waka poetry, history, and enduring love.


[Author Profile]
Yuko Nakats
Member of the Japan PEN Club, the Japan Writers’ Association, the Haiku Poets’ Association, and the Popular Literature Research Society; instructor of classical literature at the Yomiuri Culture Center and the NHK Culture Center.

〈Principal Works〉
“Reading Ancient Conflicts through the Man’yōshū,” “Songs of Longing in the Tenpyō Era,” “Tama-no-Na of Mama,” “Elegies of the Man’yō,” “The Women of the Warring Takeda Clan,” “Princess Kaguya and the Mysteries of Ancient History,” and “A Novel of Matsuo Bashō” (all from Shin Jinbutsu Ōraisha); “Walking Katsushika” (NTT Publishing); “A Town of Kannon-Gyōtoku & Urayasu” (Nakayama Shobō); “Path of the Wind” (Kadokawa Shoten); and many other titles.