13 Facts About Nobuko Yoshiya

Nobuko Yoshiya was a Japanese novelist active in Taisho and Showa period Japan.

Nobuko Yoshiya was one of modern Japan's most commercially successful and prolific writers, specializing in serialized romance novels and adolescent girls' fiction, as well as being a pioneer in Japanese lesbian literature, including the Class S genre.

Nobuko Yoshiya's father was first a police officer and then became a local county government official, so her family relocated often to accommodate his transfers.

Nobuko Yoshiya was the only daughter and youngest of five children in her family.

Nobuko Yoshiya often dressed in an androgynous style, including in magazine photo sessions.

Nobuko Yoshiya was one of the first Japanese women to emulate Western fashion in the 1920s by cutting her hair short.

Nobuko Yoshiya designed her own house and was one of the first Japanese women both to own a car and a racehorse.

Nobuko Yoshiya lived in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture during and after World War II.

Nobuko Yoshiya's house is the Yoshiya Nobuko Memorial Museum, and preserves the study as she left it, with items such as handwritten manuscripts and favorite objects on display.

Nobuko Yoshiya's grave is at the temple of Kotoku-in in Kamakura.

In January 1923, Nobuko Yoshiya met Chiyo Monma, a mathematics teacher at a girls' school in Tokyo.

In 1957, Nobuko Yoshiya adopted Monma as her daughter, the only legal way for lesbians to share property and make medical decisions for each other at the time.

In 1925, Nobuko Yoshiya began her own magazine, Kuroshoubi, which she discontinued after eight months.