Jakucho Setouchi | |
|---|---|
 Setouchi in 2012 | |
| Native name | 瀬戸内 寂聴 |
| Born | Harumi Mitani (1922-05-15)15 May 1922 Tokushima,Japan |
| Died | 9 November 2021(2021-11-09) (aged 99) Kyoto, Japan |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Genre | Novels |
| Notable works | Kashin,Natsu no Owari,Hana ni Toe,The Tale of Genji |
Jakucho Setouchi[n 1] (15 May 1922 – 9 November 2021; bornHarumi Mitani),[n 2] formerly known asHarumi Setouchi,[n 3][1] was a JapaneseBuddhist nun, writer, and activist. Setouchi wrote a best-selling translation ofThe Tale of Genji and over 400 fictionalbiographical and historical novels.[2][3] In 1997, she was honoured as aPerson of Cultural Merit, and in 2006, she was awarded theOrder of Culture of Japan.
Setouchi was born Harumi Mitani on 15 May 1922 inTokushima,Tokushima Prefecture to Toyokichi and Koharu Mitani.[3] Toyokichi was acabinetmaker who made Buddhist and Shinto religious objects.[2] In 1929, her family began using the surname Setouchi after her father was adopted by a family member.[3][2]
Setouchi studiedJapanese literature atTokyo Woman's Christian University before herarranged marriage to scholar Yasushi Sakai in 1943.[3][2] She moved with her husband after theMinistry of Foreign Affairs sent him toBeijing, and gave birth to their daughter in 1944.[3] In 1945, her mother was killed in anair raid[3] and a grandmother was also killed during the war.[2] She returned to Japan in 1946, settled with family in Tokyo in 1947, and in 1948, left her husband and daughter for a relationship with another man.[3][4]
1950 she divorced her husband and serialized her first novel in a magazine.[3] She continued to have sexual relationships, including affairs with married men, and some of her novels were semi-autobiographical.[4][3]
In 1957, she won her first literary award for her novel "Qu Ailing, the Female College Student".[3][5] She then publishedKashin ("Center of a Flower"),[5] which was criticized for the sexual content, and to which she responded, "The critics who say such things all must be impotent and their wives frigid."[3] Publishing her work was difficult for several years afterwards, and critics called her a "womb writer".[4][5]
She began to shift her novel writing focus to historical female writers and activists,[5] eventually includingKanoko Okamoto,Toshiko Tamura,Sugako Kanno,Fumiko Kaneko,[4] andItō Noe.[6] In 1963, she was awarded The Women's Literature Prize (Joryu Bungaku Sho)[5] for her 1962 bookNatsu no Owari ("The End of Summer"),[7] which became a best-seller.[4][3] In 1968, she published the essayAi no Rinri ("The Ethics of Love").[4]
In 1973, Setouchi began training to become aBuddhist nun[3] within theTendai school of Buddhism,[8] and received her name Jakuchō,[3] which means "silent, lonely listening."[8] From 1987 to 2005, she was the chief priestess at the Tendaiji temple inIwate Prefecture.[9] Setouchi was a pacifist and became an activist, including by participating in protests of thePersian Gulf War in 1991 and the2003 invasion of Iraq[2] as well as anti-nuclear rallies in Fukushimaafter the 2011 earthquake and tsunami,[10][3] including an anti-nuclearhunger strike in 2012.[11] She also opposedcapital punishment.[4][8]
She received theTanizaki Prize for her novelHana ni Toe ("Ask the Flowers") in 1992,[9] and was named aPerson of Cultural Merit in 1997.[5] Her translation ofThe Tale of Genji fromClassical Japanese took six years to complete and was published in ten volumes in 1998.[12][10] She considered Prince Genji to be aplot device for the stories of the women of the court and used a contemporary version of Japanese for her translation.[12] The novel sold more than 2.1 million volumes by mid-1999.[12] After the book was published, she gave lectures and participated in discussion groups organized by her publisher for more than a year.[13][14]
She received the JapaneseOrder of Culture in 2006.[5] She also wrote under thepen name "Purple", and in 2008 revealed she had written acell phone novel titledTomorrow's Rainbow.[15][10][4] In 2016, she helped found the nonprofit Little Women Project to support young women experiencing abuse, exploitation, drug addiction, or poverty.[4][3] In 2017, she published her novelInochi ("Life"), and then continued to publish her writing in literary magazines.[11][10]
At the time of her death, her home temple was in theKyoto Sagano area.[11] Setouchi died of heart failure inKyoto, Japan, on 9 November 2021 at the age of 99.[3]
Unable to fulfil the prescribed function of mother, the protaganist replaces child with lover. [...] [the novella and short story] are set against the failure of the vision of the Japanese empire.
