Tazawa Inabune

Tazawa Inabune (田澤 稲舟^?), born Tazawa Kin (田澤 錦^?, 1874-1896), was a Japanese writer.

She was born in Tsuruoka, Yamagata. Her father, a military doctor, did not approve of her writing ambitions. Her mother was a businessperson, and she also had a younger sister.

She submitted works to literary journals and followed authors there. While living in Tsuruoka she had become corresponding with Yamada Bimyō, and had adopted the pen name Inafune. She departed for Tokyo with the stated purpose to attend the Kyōritsu Women's Occupational School, where she would learn how to paint. Melek Ortabasi, author of "Tazawa Inabune (1874-1896)", wrote that "one may guess" that the woman's "real goal" was to move to Tokyo since her father was strict, and her father had attempted to arrange a marriage.

She met Bimyō as soon as she arrived, She enrolled in the school, but did not graduate, and she ultimately married him. According to Ortabasi, during Inabune's life, "her fame had at least as much to do with the buzz surrounding her affair with Bimyō as it did her own talent".

During the marriage, Bimyō was having affairs with other women. Inabune lived with Bimyō's mother and paternal grandmother. Inabune had little skill in domestic chores, which would make her task of serving Bimyō's relatives difficult. The marriage attracted scrutiny from the press. After three months they divorced and Inafune was forced to return to her parents' home. The Yomiuri Shimbun published Inabune monogatari ("The Inabune Story"), based on the marriage.

Inabune continued writing even when she was ill with tuberculosis. Ortabasi stated that this may have hastened her death. Inabune died at age 23, in late September 1896. Many newspapers reported that she committed suicide, and another stated "mental derangement" was the cause of her death. Ortabasi wrote that Inabune's death ended Bimyō's career "in large part" because Bimyō received criticisms for how he had treated Inabune.

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