Women have made many important contributions to Japanese literature since the Heinan period (794-1192), when Murasaki Shikibu wrote her prose masterpiece, "The Tale of Genji". Even earlier, though documentation is scant, women actively participated in Japanese letters as poets. This reference is a guide to the work of Japanese women writers from centuries ago to the present day. The volume includes 58 alphabetically arranged biographical and critical profiles. The book profiles women writers who are considered mainstream writers in Japan and who have attracted attention in the West, chiefly through translations of their works and critical scholarship on their writings. Each entry discusses the subject's life, career, major works and works in English translation. A bibliography concludes each article. While most of the women are poets, novelists or authors of classical narrative fiction, the book also includes entries for premodern diarists, modern dramatists, television script writers and movie scenario writers.