Nun Abutsu stands as one of the major literary figures of the mid Kamakura period, and she is without a doubt one of its most dynamic women, at least within the terms afforded by her times. Robert Brower and Earl Miner claim that “[Fujiwara no] Tameie and Japanese Court poetry might have passed serenely into extinction had he not shortly before this time taken to wife a most remarkable woman, commonly known by the religious name she took after his death, the Nun Abutsu.” Perhaps the rhetoric overstates historical fact, but it does justice to the strength of Abutsu's character.

As well as can be determined Abutsu's life spans the years from about 1221 to 1283. (Her date of birth is estimated to be between 1221 and 1226.) In her sixty years she saw the reigns of six competing emperors: Go-Horikawa, Shij, Go-Saga, Go-Fukakusa, Kameyama, and Go-Uda. While the imperial family was...