Ōe at the Japanisches Kulturinstitut inCologne on 11 April 2008
Kenzaburō Ōe (大江 健三郎,Ōe Kenzaburō; 31 January 1935 – 3 March 2023) was a Japanese writer and a major figure in contemporaryJapanese literature. His novels, short stories and essays, strongly influenced by French and American literature andliterary theory, deal with political, social and philosophical issues, includingnuclear weapons,nuclear power,social non-conformism, andexistentialism. Ōe was awarded the1994 Nobel Prize in Literature for creating "an imagined world, where life and myth condense to form a disconcerting picture of the human predicament today".[1]
Born on the island ofShikoku, Ōe was from Ōse, a village that is now part of Uchiko, in Ehime Prefecture.[2] The third of seven children, he grew up listening to his grandmother, a storyteller of myths and folklore, who also recounted the oral history of the two uprisings in the region before and after theMeiji Restoration.[3][2] His father, Kōtare Ōe, had a bark-stripping business; the bark was used to make paper currency.[2] After his father died in thePacific War in 1944, his mother, Koseki, became the driving force behind his education, buying him books includingThe Adventures of Huckleberry Finn andThe Wonderful Adventures of Nils, which had a formative influence on him.[3]
Ōe received the first ten years of his education in local public schools.[4] He started school during the peak ofmilitarism in Japan; in class, he was forced to pronounce his loyalty to EmperorHirohito, who his teacher claimed was a god.[2] After the war, he realized he had been taught lies and felt betrayed. This sense of betrayal later appeared in his writing.[2]
Ōe attended high school inMatsuyama from 1951 to 1953, where he excelled as a student.[4][2] At the age of 18, he made his first trip to Tokyo, where he studied at a prep school (yobikō) for one year.[4][3] The following year, he began studying French Literature at theUniversity of Tokyo with Professor Kazuo Watanabe, a specialist onFrançois Rabelais.[3]
Ōe began publishing stories in 1957, while still a student, strongly influenced by contemporary writing in France and the United States.[3] He was particularly influenced by the writings ofJean-Paul Sartre.[5] His first work to be published was "Lavish are the Dead", a short story set in Tokyo during the American occupation, which appeared inBungakukai literary magazine.[6] His early works were set in his own university milieu.[7]
In 1958, his short story "Shiiku" (飼育) was awarded the prestigiousAkutagawa Prize.[6] The work was about a black GI set upon by Japanese youth, and was later made into a film,The Catch byNagisa Oshima in 1961.[7] Another early novella, later translated asNip the Buds, Shoot the Kids, focused on young children living inArcadian transformations of Ōe's own ruralShikoku childhood.[7] Ōe identified these child figures as belonging to the 'child god'archetype ofJung andKerényi, which is characterised by abandonment,hermaphrodism, invincibility, and association with beginning and end.[8] The first two characteristics are present in these early stories, while the latter two features come to the fore in the 'idiot boy' stories which appeared after the birth of his son Hikari.[9]: 135
Between 1958 and 1961 Ōe published a series of works incorporating sexual metaphors for the occupation of Japan. He summarised the common theme of these stories as "the relationship of a foreigner as the big power [Z], a Japanese who is more or less placed in a humiliating position [X], and, sandwiched between the two, the third party [Y] (sometimes a prostitute who caters only to foreigners or an interpreter)".[10] In each of these works, the Japanese X is inactive, failing to take the initiative to resolve the situation and showing no psychological or spiritual development.[9]: 32 The graphically sexual nature of this group of stories prompted a critical outcry; Ōe said of the culmination of the seriesOur Times, "I personally like this novel [because] I do not think I will ever write another novel which is filled only with sexual words."[9]: 29
In 1961, Ōe's novellasSeventeen andThe Death of a Political Youth were published in the Japanese literary magazineBungakukai. Both were inspired by seventeen-year-oldYamaguchi Otoya, who had assassinatedJapan Socialist Party chairmanInejirō Asanuma in October 1960, and then killed himself in prison three weeks later.[11] Yamaguchi had admirers among the extreme right wing who were angered byThe Death of a Political Youth and both Ōe and the magazine receiveddeath threats day and night for weeks. The magazine soon apologized to offended readers, but Ōe did not,[2] and he was later physically assaulted by an angry right-winger while giving a speech at theUniversity of Tokyo.[12]
Ōe's next phase moved away from sexual content, shifting this time toward the violent fringes of society. The works which he published between 1961 and 1964 are influenced byexistentialism andpicaresque literature, populated with more or less criminal rogues andanti-heroes whose position on the fringes of society allows them to make pointed criticisms of it.[9]: 47 Ōe's admission that Mark Twain'sHuckleberry Finn is his favorite book can be said to find a context in this period.[13]
Book cover of the 1996 English version of Kenzaburō Ōe's book about his handicapped son and their life as a family.
Ōe creditedhis son Hikari for influencing his literary career. Ōe tried to give his son a "voice" through his writing. Several of Ōe's books feature a character based on his son.[14]
In Ōe's 1964 book,A Personal Matter, the writer describes the psychological trauma involved in accepting his brain-damaged son into his life.[3] Hikari figures prominently in many of the books singled out for praise by the Nobel committee, and his life is the core of the first book published after Ōe was awarded the Nobel Prize. The 1996 book,A Healing Family, is a memoir written as a collection of essays.[15]
In 2005, two retired Japanese military officers sued Ōe forlibel for his 1970 book of essays,Okinawa Notes, in which he had written that members of the Japanese military had coerced masses of Okinawan civilians into committing suicide during theAllied invasion of the island in 1945. In March 2008, theOsaka District Court dismissed all charges against Ōe. In this ruling, Judge Toshimasa Fukami stated, "The military was deeply involved in themass suicides". In a news conference following the trial, Ōe said, "The judge accurately read my writing."[16]
Ōe did not write much during the nearly two years (2006–2008) of his libel case. He began writing a new novel, whichThe New York Times reported would feature a character "based on his father," a staunch supporter of the imperial system who drowned in a flood during World War II.[17]Death by Water was published in 2009.
Bannen Yoshikishu, his final novel, is the sixth in a series with the main character of Kogito Choko, who can be considered Ōe's literary alter ego. The novel is also in a sense a culmination of the I-novels that Ōe continued to write since his son was born developmentally disabled in 1963. In the novel, Choko loses interest in the novel he had been writing when theGreat East Japan earthquake and tsunami struck theTohoku region on 11 March 2011. Instead, he begins writing about an age of catastrophe, as well as about the fact that he himself was approaching his late 70s.[18]
In 1959 and 1960, Ōe participated in theAnpo protests against theU.S.-Japan Security Treaty as a member of a group of young writers, artists, and composers called the "Young Japan Society" (Wakai Nihon no Kai).[19] The treaty allowed the United States to maintain military bases in Japan, and Ōe's disappointment at the failure of the protests to stop the treaty shaped his future writing.[12][20]
Ōe at a 2013 antinuclear demonstration in Tokyo
Ōe was involved with pacifist and anti-nuclear campaigns and wrote books regarding theatomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and theHibakusha. After meeting prominent American anti-nuclear activistNoam Chomsky at a Harvard degree ceremony, Ōe began his correspondence with Chomsky by sending him a copy of hisOkinawa Notes. While also discussing Ōe'sOkinawa Notes, Chomsky's reply included a story from his childhood. Chomsky wrote that when he first heard about the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, he could not bear it being celebrated, and he went in the woods and sat alone until the evening.[21] Ōe later said in an interview, "I've always respected Chomsky, but I respected him even more after he told me that."[22]
In a 2007 interview withThe Paris Review, Ōe described himself as ananarchist. Stating: "In principle, I am an anarchist.Kurt Vonnegut once said he was an agnostic who respects Jesus Christ. I am an anarchist who loves democracy."[23]
Following the 2011Fukushima nuclear disaster, he urged Prime MinisterYoshihiko Noda to "halt plans to restart nuclear power plants and instead abandon nuclear energy".[24] Ōe said Japan has an "ethical responsibility" to abandon nuclear power in the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, just as it renounced war under its postwarConstitution. He called for "an immediate end to nuclear power generation and warned that Japan would suffer another nuclear catastrophe if it tries to resume nuclear power plant operations". In 2013, he organized a mass demonstration in Tokyo against nuclear power.[25] Ōe also criticized moves to amendArticle 9 of the Constitution, which forever renounces war.[26]
In 2015, Ōe stated that he believed that the Japanese government had not adequately acknowledged or apologized for thecomfort women issue.[27]
Ōe married in February 1960. His wife, Yukari, was the daughter of film directorMansaku Itami and sister of film directorJuzo Itami. The same year he metMao Zedong on a trip to China. He also went to Russia and Europe the following year, visitingSartre in Paris.[22][12]
Ōe lived in Tokyo and had three children.[28] In 1963, his eldest son,Hikari, was born with abrain hernia.[29] Ōe initially struggled to accept his son's condition, which required surgery which would leave him with learning disabilities for life.[28] Hikari lived with Kenzaburō and Yukari until he was middle-aged, and often composed music in the same room where his father was writing.[28]
In 1994 Ōe won theNobel Prize in Literature and was named to receive Japan'sOrder of Culture. He refused the latter because it is bestowed by theEmperor. Ōe said, "I do not recognize any authority, any value, higher than democracy." Once again, he received threats.[2]
Shortly after learning that he had been awarded the Nobel Prize, Ōe said that he was encouraged by the Swedish Academy's recognition of modern Japanese literature, and hoped that it would inspire other writers.[31] He toldThe New York Times that his writing was ultimately focused on "the dignity of human beings."[31]
In 2005, theKenzaburō Ōe Prize was established by publisherKodansha to promote Japanese literary novels internationally,[38] with the first prize awarded in 2007.[39] The winning work was selected solely by Ōe,[38] to be translated into English, French, or German, and published worldwide.[39]
The number of Kenzaburō Ōe's works translated into English and other languages remains limited, so that much of his literary output is still only available in Japanese.[40] The few translations have often appeared after a marked lag in time.[41] Works of his have also been translated into Chinese, French, and German.[42]
Year
Japanese Title
English Title
Comments
Ref.
1957
死者の奢り Shisha no ogori
Lavish Are The Dead
Short story published inBungakukai literary magazine
Short story awarded the Akutagawa prize. Published in English as "Prize Stock" inTeach Us to Outgrow Our Madness (1977) and as "The Catch" in "The Catch and Other War Stories" (Kodansha International 1981).
Collection of seven short stories originally published inGunzo andShincho magazines between 1982 and 1983. The title is taken from the preface to the poemMilton byWilliam Blake. Awarded the 10th Jiro Osaragi Prize. Translated by John Nathan.
Nobel Prize acceptance speech; the title is a reference toYasunari Kawabata's Nobel acceptance speech, "Japan, the Beautiful, and Myself". In 1995, nine lectures given by Ōe in the 1990s were published in the same volume with this title.
Collection of essays serialized from 1990 to 1995 inSawarabi, a journal on rehabilitative medicine, with an afterword and drawings by Yukari Oe. Adapted and translated in 1996 by Stephen Snyder.
^Oe, Kenzaburo (1978).Shōsetsu no hōhō (The Method of a Novel) (in Japanese). Tokyo: Iwanami. p. 197.
^abcdWilson, Michiko N. (1986).The Marginal World of Ōe Kenzaburō: A Study in Themes and Techniques. Armonk, New York: M. E. Sharpe.ISBN978-0-87332-343-7.
^Ōe,Ōe Kenzaburō Zensakuhin, Vol. 2 (Supplement No. 3). p. 16.
^Liukkonen, Petri."Kenzaburo Ōe".Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi). Finland:Kuusankoski Public Library. Archived fromthe original on 10 February 2015.
Oe, K. (2007, Winter). The Art of Fiction No. 195 [Interview by S. Fay]. Retrieved 23 April 2019, from https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/5816/kenzaburo-oe-the-art-of-fiction-no-195-kenzaburo-oe
Kenzaburō, Ōe; Chomsky, Noam (2002). "An Exchange on Current Affairs".World Literature Today.76 (2). University of Oklahoma Board of Regents: 29.doi:10.2307/40157257.ISSN0196-3570.JSTOR40157257.
Wilson, Michiko N. (2007). ″Kenzaburo Ôe: Laughing Prophet and Soulful Healer,″ on the official Nobel Foundation Website,The Nobel Prize in Literature 1994
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