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YGK Japanese Authors
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Novelist, diarist, and courtesan. She was the author of the Tale of Genji (Genji monogatari), the first known novel; the diary, Murasaki Shikibu nikki; and a collection of tanka poems. | Murasaki Shikibu (978? - 1015?) |
| The daughter of the court official Fujiwara Tametoki, she sat in on the classical Chinese literature lessons that her brother received, in spite of the Heian traditions against higher education for women. | Murasaki Shikibu (978? - 1015?) |
| Like Lady Murasaki, Sei Shonagan was a lady-in-waiting of the Empress. Since Lady Murasaki and herwere contemporaries and known for their wit, they were often rivals. | Sei Shonagan (966/7 - 1013?) |
| Her only work is the Pillow Book (Makura no soshi), which is considered the best source of information about life at the Japanese court during the Heian period (784-1185). | Sei Shonagan (966/7 - 1013?) |
| The second master of the Kanze theatrical school, which had been founded by his father, he is regarded as the greatest playwright of the No theater. | Zeami (1363-1443) (also called Kanze Motokiyo) |
| He provided 90 of the approximately 230 plays in the modern repertoire. Among his best works are Atsumori, The Robe of Feathers, Birds of Sorrow, and Wind in the Pines. | Zeami (1363-1443) (also called Kanze Motokiyo) |
| Also a drama critic, he established the aesthetic standards by which plays have been judged ever since. His Fushi kaden (The Transmission of the Flower of Acting Style) is a manual for his pupils. | Zeami (1363-1443) (also called Kanze Motokiyo) |
| Generally acknowledged as the master of the haiku form, the most notable influences on his work were Zen Buddhism and his travels throughout Japan. | Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) (pseudonym of Matsuo Munefusa) |
| He is noted for works like The Narrow Road to the Deep North (Oku no hosomichi), which includes descriptions of local sights in both prose and haiku. | Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) (pseudonym of Matsuo Munefusa) |
| He took his pseudonym from the name of the simple hut where he retired: Basho-an, which means "Cottage of the Plaintain Tree." | Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) (pseudonym of Matsuo Munefusa) |
| He was Japan's first professional dramatist. Originally named Sugimori Nobumori, he wrote more than 150 plays for both the bunraku (puppet theater) and the kabuki (popular theater). | Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653 - 1725) |
| His scripts fall into two categories: historical romances (mono) and domestic tragedies (wamono). | Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653 - 1725) |
| One of his most popular plays was The Battles of Coxinga, an historical melodrama about an attempt to re-establish the Ming dynasty in China. | Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653 - 1725) |
| He is also largely responsible for developing the sewamono (contemporary drama on contemporary themes) in the joruri, a style of chanted narration adapted to bunraku. | Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653 - 1725) |
| His mother died insane while he was a child, and his father was a failure who gave him up to relatives. | Akutagawa Ryunosuke (1892 - 1927) |
| In 1927 he committed suicide by overdosing on pills, and his suicide letter A Note to a Certain Old Friend became a published work. | Akutagawa Ryunosuke (1892 - 1927) |
| Despite this inauspicious childhood, his 1915 short story Rashomon brought him into the highest literary circles and started him writing the macabre stories for which he is known. | Akutagawa Ryunosuke (1892 - 1927) |
| Rashomon also was key to his international fame, when Kurosawa Akira made it into a film in 1951. One of Japan's two most prestigious literary prizes is named for Akutagawa; it is awarded for the best serious work of fiction by a new Japanese writer. | Akutagawa Ryunosuke (1892 - 1927) |
| Recipient of the 1968 Nobel Prize for Literature, he was the first Japanese author to be so honored. His works combine classic Japanese values with modern trends and often center on the role of sex in people's lives. | Kawabata Yasunari (1899 - 1972) |
| His works are often only a few pages long, a form given the name "palm-of-the-hand." | Kawabata Yasunari (1899 - 1972) |
| He is best known for three novels: Thousand Cranes, based on the tea ceremony and inspired by The Tale of Genji; The Sound of the Mountain, about the relationship of an old man and his daughter-in-law; and Snow Country, about an aging geisha. | Kawabata Yasunari (1899 - 1972) |
| A friend of Mishima Yukio, he was also associated with right-wing causes and openly protested the Cultural Revolution in China. He committed suicide two years after Mishima. | Kawabata Yasunari (1899 - 1972) |
| He was a novelist whose central theme was the disparity between traditional Japanese values and the spiritual emptiness of modern life. He failed to qualify for military service during World War II, so worked in an aircraft factory instead. | Mishima Yukio (1925 - 1970) (pseudonym of Hiraoka Kimitake) |
| His first novel, Confessions of a Mask (Kamen no kokuhaku), was successful enough to allow him to write full time. | Mishima Yukio (1925 - 1970) (pseudonym of Hiraoka Kimitake) |
| His 4 volume epic, The Sea of Fertility (Hojo no umi, consisting of Spring Snow, Runaway Horses, The Temple of Dawn, and The Decay of the Angel), is about self-destructive personalities and the transformation of Japan into a modern, but sterile, society. | Mishima Yukio (1925 - 1970) (pseudonym of Hiraoka Kimitake) |
| He organized the Tate no kai, a right-wing society stressing physical fitness and the martial arts, committed ritual suicide after a public speech failed to galvanize the armed forces into overthrowing the government. | Mishima Yukio (1925 - 1970) (pseudonym of Hiraoka Kimitake) |
| He converted to Catholicism at the age of 11, and majored in French literature. His first works, White Man and Yellow Man, explored the differences between Japanese and Western values and national experiences. | Endo Shusaku (1923-1996) |
| Silence tells of the martyrdom of Catholic converts of Portuguese priests. The Samurai recounts the tale of a samurai sent to establish trade relations between his shogun & Mexico, Spain, & Rome. These 2 books are considered to be his greatest achievement | Endo Shusaku (1923-1996) |
| Novelist and recipient of the 1994 Nobel Prize for Literature. | Oe Kenzaburo(1935 - present) |
| His early works are filled with insanity, abuse, perverse sex, and violence | Oe Kenzaburo(1935 - present) |
| His fiction centers on the alienation following Japan's surrender and his political writings focus on the search for cultural and ideological roots. | Oe Kenzaburo(1935 - present) |
| His first work, Shiiku (The Catch in the Shadow of the Sunrise), describes a friendship between a Japanese boy and a black American POW, and won him the Akutagawa award while he was still a student. | Oe Kenzaburo(1935 - present) |
| His later works (including A Personal Matter (Kojinteki-na taiken) and The Silent Cry (Man'en gannen no futtoboru)) reflect the experience of being the father of a brain-damaged child. | Oe Kenzaburo(1935 - present) |
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Mr_Morman
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