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Kaikō Takeshi 開高 健 | |
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 Kaikō Takeshi | |
| Born | (1930-12-30)30 December 1930 Tennoji-ku, Osaka, Japan |
| Died | 9 December 1989(1989-12-09) (aged 58) Chigasaki, Kanagawa, Japan |
| Occupation | Writer, journalist |
| Genre | Novels, short stories, essays |
Takeshi Kaikō (開高 健,Kaikō Takeshi; 30 December 1930 – 9 December 1989), also known asKenKaikō, was a Japanese novelist, short-story writer, essayist,literary critic, andtelevision documentary writer. He was distinguished by his knowledge, intellect, sense of humor and conversational skills, and although his style has been criticized as wordy and obtuse, he was one of the more popular Japanese writers in the lateShōwa period.
Kaikō was born in theTennoji Ward ofOsaka as the son of an elementary school teacher. In 1948, he enrolled in the Law Department ofOsaka City University, but was often absent from class, as he had to take a variety of part-time jobs in order to pay for his tuition. While in school, rather than study law he was sidetracked by the works ofMotojirō Kajii,Mitsuharu Kaneko andAtsushi Nakajima. He also translated the works ofSherwood Anderson andLouis Aragon into Japanese. He graduated in 1953 and moved toTokyo, where he took a job with Kotobukiya (the presentSuntory), where he worked in the public-relations department.
He married Yōko Maki, a poet.
Kaikō published his first work,Na no nai machi (Nameless City, 1953) in theliterary magazineKindai Bungaku soon after his move to Tokyo. It was largely ignored by critics. However, his second work, a short story titledPanniku (Panic, 1957) published in theShin Nippon Bunkaku, caused a sensation for its unusual concept and style. It was a story about a dedicated forester in a rural prefecture of Japan, who struggles against government incompetence and corruption. Kaikō wrote the story as asatiricalallegory comparing human beings to mice.
Kaikō won the prestigiousAkutagawa Prize in 1957 with hisHadaka no ōsama (The Naked King), a story critical of the pressures placed on school children by Japan's educational system.
Kaikō is considered aleftist activist, respected in manyIndochinese countries, in particular, for his vocal opposition to Japan's support of the United States' policies in Indochina in the 1960s. He was one of the founders of theBeheiren (Betonamu ni heiwa o! Shimin rengo), or theLeague for Peace in Vietnam. This activity was related to his experience as awar correspondent inVietnam with theAsahi Shimbun; he was briefly imprisoned by theViet Cong. These experiences translated into his novel,Kagayakeru yami (Into a Black Sun, 1968), an account of a Japanese journalist experiencing first-hand the life of the Americans and South Vietnamese troops in Vietnam. The novel won the prestigiousMainichi Book Award.
However, Kaikō had a wide range of topics in his repertory.Natsu no yami (Darkness in Summer, 1971) was essentially a romance between a reporter and an expatriate Japanese woman living in Europe.
Kaikō enriched theJapanese language with the word "apache", to denote scavengers ofrecyclables, described in his novel,Japan's Threepenny Opera.
Considered a gourmet, in his later years, Kaikō wrote numerous essays on food and drink, as well as appearing on food-related or fishing-relatedTV shows and inTV commercials.
He died ofesophageal cancer. His grave is at the Shorei-in sub-temple of theEngaku-ji Temple complex,Kamakura, Kanagawa.
His former house inChigasaki, Kanagawa has been preserved as a memorial museum.
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