Departures of note

Aoki Tama was a Japanese essayist born in Tokyo in 1929 into a distinguished literary family: her grandfather was the celebrated novelist Kōda Rohan and her mother was the writer Kōda Aya. After her mother's death in 1990, she organized her manuscripts and served as an editorial committee member for the Kōda Aya Complete Works, helping preserve her family's literary legacy.

In 1994 she published Koishikawa no Ie, her memoir of the household she shared with her grandfather and mother, which won the Arts Encouragement Prize from the Minister of Education and was later adapted into a television drama. From 1996 she wrote a year-long column, "Nandemonai Hanashi," for the Asahi Shimbun Sunday edition.

Her daughter, Aoki Nao, is a noted essayist. Aoki Tama died of old age on October 21, 2026, at the age of 96.