She was a feminist writer in Meiji and Postwar Japan. She wrote for a female audience, with characters meant for a female audience, and encouraged female independence and escape from traditional female roles in society. Many of her characters were lesbian or lesbian-coded.
She fell in love with another woman, a math teacher named Monma Chiyo, and tried to marry her. When it became clear that she couldn’t do that, did she stop?
Not a chance.
Instead, she said, ‘well, what if I built a new house in my family’s name, declared it a branch household in the family register, moved there, making me the only member of this branch of the family, declared myself bereft of heirs, then legally adopted Chiyo so the government would have to recognize us as one household, then threw a party to celebrate the adoption and the two of us just happen to show up in wedding kimonos, is that illegal? That’s right, it’s not.”
Source: Walthall, Anne. The Human Tradition in Modern Japan. Wilmington, DE: SR, 2002. Print.
