Yoshiko Shigekane
- Yama ai no kemuri
- Akutagawa Prize
Yoshiko Shigekane (重兼 芳子, Shigekane Yoshiko, March 7, 1927 – August 22, 1993) was a Japanese writer from Hokkaido. She won the Akutagawa Prize in 1979, and her work has been adapted for film.
Early life
Shigekane was born in Hokkaido, Japan on March 7, 1927. Her father worked for a mining company. Throughout her childhood she had problems with her hips dislocating, requiring multiple surgeries to address and providing experience that she would later incorporate into her story Miesugiru me (見えすぎる目, Eyes That See Too Well), about a child with similar problems who has a troubled relationship with her mother. The family later moved to Fukuoka. In 1946 Shigekane was baptized as a Protestant, and the next year she married her husband, with whom she subsequently had three children.[1]
Career
After raising her children Shigekane started taking writing courses.[2] In 1978 she published her first story in a literary journal, with Sui-i appearing in Bungakukai, and received her first nomination for the Akutagawa Prize, for her story Baby Food.[1] The next year Shigekane was nominated again for the Akutagawa Prize and won, becoming one of only six women to receive the prize in the 1970s.[3] Her story Yama ai no keburi (やまあいの煙, The Smoke in the Mountain Valley), about a diligent crematorium worker, was chosen over Haruki Murakami's nominated story Hear the Wind Sing, which the committee considered to be too imitative of American literature to be awarded the Akutagawa Prize.[4] Later that year Bungeishunjū published a collection of Shigekune's stories that included the title story Yama ai no keburi, Miesugiru me, and two other stories.
Shigekane wrote several more novels after winning the Akutagawa Prize, including the 1980 novel Usui kaigara (うすい貝殻, Thin Seashells), about a woman who conforms to the expectations of those around her, and the 1986 novel Kumazasa no hara no kaze no michi (熊笹の原に風の道, A Windy Pass in the Field of Low Striped Bamboos), about a bank worker whose new bride develops a fatal tumor.[1] In 1985 Toho released a film adaptation of Yama ai no keburi titled Itoshiki hibi yo, starring Rino Katase and Masami Shimojō.[5]
Shigekane died of cancer on August 22, 1993.[1]
Recognition
- 1979: 81st Akutagawa Prize (1979上)[6]
Film and other adaptations
- Itoshiki hibi yo (Fondness of Days Past), 1985[5]
Works
Selected works in Japanese
- Yama ai no keburi (やまあいの煙, The Smoke in the Mountain Valley), Bungeishunjū, 1979, OCLC 766261707
- Usui kaigara (うすい貝殻, Thin Seashells), Bungeishunjū, 1980, OCLC 673600529
- Kumazasa no hara no kaze no michi (熊笹の原に風の道, A Windy Pass in the Field of Low Striped Bamboos), Chuokoron-Shinsha, 1986, ISBN 9784120015441
Works in English
- "The Smoke in the Mountain Valley", trans. John Wilson and Motoko Naruse, Mississippi Review, 2012[7]
References
- ^ a b c d Schierbeck, Sachiko; Edelstein, Marlene (1994). Japanese Women Novelists in the 20th Century: 104 Biographies, 1900-1993. Museum Tusculanum. pp. 264–266. ISBN 9788772892689.
- ^ "小説家の卵たちは読み合い、批評し合う 芥川賞の2人を生んだ講座があった". Tokyo Shimbun (in Japanese). January 28, 2018. Retrieved November 29, 2018.
- ^ Jones, Gretchen (2003). "The 1960s and 1970s Boom in Women's Writing". In Mostow, Joshua S. (ed.). The Columbia Companion to Modern East Asian Literature. p. 222. ISBN 9780231507363.
- ^ Karashima, David James (2013). The Translating, Rewriting, and Reproducing of Haruki Murakami for the Anglophone Market (PhD). Rovira i Virgili University.
- ^ a b Galbraith IV, Stuart (2008). The Toho Studios Story: A History and Complete Filmography. Scarecrow Press. p. 344. ISBN 9781461673743.
- ^ "芥川賞受賞者一覧" [List of Akutagawa Prize Winners]. Bungeishunjū (in Japanese). 日本文学振興会. January 1, 2018. Retrieved November 29, 2018.
- ^ Shigekane, Yoshiko (2012). "The Smoke in the Mountain Valley". Mississippi Review. 39 (1/3). Translated by Wilson, John; Naruse, Motoko: 131–161. JSTOR 41336622.
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- 1935: Tatsuzō Ishikawa / None
- 1936: Oda Takeo and Tsuruta Tomoya / Jun Ishikawa and Tomisawa Uio
- 1937: Ozaki Kazuo / Ashihei Hino
- 1938: Nakayama Gishū / Nakazato Tsuneko
- 1939: Handa Yoshiyuki and Hase Ken / Samukawa Kotaro
- 1940: None / Sakurada Tsunehisa
- 1941: Tada Yukei / Shibaki Yoshiko
- 1942: None / Kuramitsu Toshio
- 1943: Ishizuka Kikuzo / Tonobe Kaoru
- 1944: Yagi Yoshinori and Ono Juzo / Shimizu Motoyoshi
- 1949: Kotani Tsuyoshi and Yuki Shigeko / Yasushi Inoue
- 1950: Tsuji Ryoichi / None
- 1951: Abe Kōbō and Ishikawa Toshimitsu / Hotta Yoshie
- 1952: None / Gomi Kosuke and Matsumoto Seichō
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- 1955: Shūsaku Endō / Shintaro Ishihara
- 1956: Kondō Keitarō / None
- 1957: Kikumura Itaru / Takeshi Kaikō
- 1958: Kenzaburō Ōe / None
- 1959: Shiba Shiro / None
- 1960: Morio Kita / Miura Tetsuo
- 1961: None / Kōichirō Uno
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- 1963: Goto Kiichi and Kōno Taeko / Tanabe Seiko
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- 1966: None / Maruyama Kenji
- 1967: Oshiro Tatsuhiro / Kashiwabara Hyozo
- 1968: Maruya Saiichi and Oba Minako / None
- 1969: Shoji Kaoru and Takubo Hideo / KiyookaTakayuki
- 1970: Yoshida Tomoko and Komao Furuyama / Yoshikichi Furui
- 1971: None / Kaisei Ri and Mineo Higashi
- 1972: Hiroshi Hatayama and Akio Miyahara / Michiko Yamamoto and Shizuko Go
- 1973: Taku Miki / Kuninobu Noro and Atsushi Mori
- 1974: None / Keizo Hino and Hiro Sakata
- 1975: Kyoko Hayashi / Kenji Nakagami and Kazuo Okamatsu
- 1976: Ryū Murakami / None
- 1977: Masahiro Mita and Masuo Ikeda / Teru Miyamoto and Shuzo Taki
- 1978: Kiichiro Takahashi and Michitsuna Takahashi / None
- 1979: Yoshiko Shigekane and So Aono / Reiko Mori
- 1980: None / Katsuhiko Otsuji
- 1981: Rie Yoshiyuki / None
- 1982: None / Yukiko Kato and Jūrō Kara
- 1983: None / Jun Kasahara and Nobuko Takagi
- 1984: None / Satoko Kizaki
- 1985: None / Fumiko Kometani
- 1986: None / None
- 1987: Kiyoko Murata / Natsuki Ikezawa and Kiyohiro Miura
- 1988: Man Arai / Keishi Nagi and Lee Yangji
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- 1991: Yo Henmi and Anna Ogino / Eiko Matsumura
- 1992: Tomomi Fujiwara / Yoko Tawada
- 1993: Haruhiko Yoshimeki / Hikaru Okuizumi
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- 1995: Kazushi Hosaka / Matayoshi Eiki
- 1996: Hiromi Kawakami / Hitonari Tsuji and Miri Yu
- 1997: Shun Medoruma / None
- 1998: Mangetsu Hanamura and Shu Fujisawa / Keiichiro Hirano
- 1999: None / Gengetsu and Chiya Fujino
- 2000: Kō Machida and Hisaki Matsuura / Yuichi Seirai and Toshiyuki Horie
- 2001: Sokyu Genyu / Yu Nagashima
- 2002: Shuichi Yoshida / Tamaki Daido
- 2003: Man'ichi Yoshimura / Risa Wataya and Hitomi Kanehara
- 2004: Norio Mobu / Kazushige Abe
- 2005: Fuminori Nakamura / Akiko Itoyama
- 2006: Takami Itō / Nanae Aoyama
- 2007: Tetsushi Suwa / Mieko Kawakami
- 2008: Yang Yi / Kikuko Tsumura
- 2009: Ken'ichirō Isozaki / None
- 2010: Akiko Akazome / Mariko Asabuki and Kenta Nishimura
- 2011: None / Toh EnJoe and Shinya Tanaka
- 2012: Maki Kashimada / Natsuko Kuroda
- 2013: Kaori Fujino / Hiroko Oyamada
- 2014: Tomoka Shibasaki / Masatsugu Ono
- 2015: Keisuke Hada and Naoki Matayoshi / Yusho Takiguchi and Yukiko Motoya
- 2016: Sayaka Murata / Sumito Yamashita
- 2017: Shinsuke Numata / Chisako Wakatake and Yuka Ishii
- 2018: Hiroki Takahashi / Takahiro Ueda and Ryōhei Machiya
- 2019: Natsuko Imamura / Makoto Furukawa
- 2020: Haruka Tono and Haneko Takayama / Rin Usami
- 2021: Li Kotomi and Mai Ishizawa / Bunji Sunakawa
- 2022: Junko Takase / Iko Idogawa and Atsushi Satō
- 2023: Saō Ichikawa / Rie Kudan