Jakucho Setouchi

(15 May 1922 – 9 November 2021; born formerly known as was a Japanese Buddhist nun, writer, and activist. Setouchi wrote a best-selling translation of The Tale of Genji and over 400 fictional biographical and historical novels.

1950 she divorced her husband and serialized her first novel in a magazine. which became a best-seller. From 1987 to 2005, she was the chief priestess at the Tendaiji temple in Iwate Prefecture. Setouchi was a pacifist and became an activist, including by participating in protests of the Persian Gulf War in 1991 and the 2003 invasion of Iraq She considered Prince Genji to be a plot device for the stories of the women of the court and used a contemporary version of Japanese for her translation.

She received the Japanese Order of Culture in 2006.

Works Joshidaisei Chui Airin ("Qu Ailing, the Female College Student") (1957) Natsu no owari ("The End of Summer") (1962), translated by Janine Beichman Kashin ("Center of a Flower") (1963) Miren ("Lingering Affections") (1963) Kiji ("Pheasant") (1963) translated by Robert Huey in Hana ni toe ("Ask the Flowers") (1992) Beauty in Disarray (1993), translated by Sanford Goldstein and Kazuji Ninomiya The Tale of Genji (1998) Basho ("Places") (2001)

Honours and awards 1957 Shinchosha Coterie Magazine Award for Joshidaisei Chui Airin 1963 Women's Literature Prize (Joryu Bungaku Sho) for Natsu no Owari 2001 Noma Prize in literature for Basho 2006 Order of Culture of Japan 2006 International Nonino Prize