Japanese Women Novelists In The 20th Century

It was not until Kawabata Yasunari won the 1968 Nobel Prize for literature that the average Western reader became aware of contemporary Japanese literature. A few translations of writings by Japanese women have appeared lately, yet the West remains largely ignorant of this wide field. In this book Sachiko Schierbeck profiles the 104 female winners of prestigious literary prizes in Japan since the beginning of the century. It contains summaries of their selected works, and a bibliography of works translated into Western languages from 1900 to 1993. These works give insight into the minds and hearts of Japanese women and draw a truer picture of the conditions of Japanese community life than any sociological study would present. Schierbeck's 104 biographies constitute a useful reference work not only to students of literature but to anyone with an interest in women's studies, history or sociology.

This collection includes translated works by Japanese women writers that deal with the experiences of modern women. The work of these women represents current feminist perception, imagination and thought. "Here are Japanese women in infinite and fascinating variety -- ardent lovers, lonely single women, political activists, betrayed wives, loyal wives, protective mothers, embittered mothers, devoted daughters. ... a new sense of the richness of Japanese women's experience, a new appreciation for feelings too long submerged". -- The New York Times Book Review

After centuries of repression of the female voice in literature, the Meiji (1868-1912) and Taisho (1912-1926) periods in Japanese history saw important changes in both the way women wrote and the way they were read. However, even the most accepted female writers of these two eras were judged by criteria different from those applied to men, and only the most conservative were praised by the (male) critics. This study of the women who wrote in the modern era examines both famous and now-obscure writers within the context of their moments in time and their influence on later generations of Japanese women writers. Arranged chronologically, the book covers the pioneering women of the early Meiji period, the ethos of reactionary conservatism, the romantic movement in poetry, women writers of the naturalist school, Taisho liberalism, and the new era of literary women. An introduction outlines the various schools of Japanese female writers during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as well as the social and cultural trends that helped produce them. The text is appropriate for both well-read scholars of Japanese literature and newcomers to the works of the "fair ladies of the back chamber," as these creative and driven writers were once called.

This anthology introduces sixteen modern Japanese women writers spanning a century in time and a wide range of life circumstances and literary styles. No other collection offers usch a diversity of women's voices

A hilarious story of one man’s obsession and a brilliant reckoning of a nation’s cultural confusion—from a master Japanese novelist. When twenty-eight-year-old Joji first lays eyes upon the teenage waitress Naomi, he is instantly smitten by her exotic, almost Western appearance. Determined to transform her into the perfect wife and to whisk her away from the seamy underbelly of post-World War I Tokyo, Joji adopts and ultimately marries Naomi, paying for English and music lessons that promise to mold her into his ideal companion. But as she grows older, Joji discovers that Naomi is far from the naïve girl of his fantasies. And, in Tanizaki’s masterpiece of lurid obsession, passion quickly descends into comically helpless masochism.

"Woman Critiqued will make us wonder why we thought we could grasp modern Japanese literature without concerted attention to what men and women had to say about women’s literary production. This remarkable collection is full of surprises, even where predictable arguments are being made. Careful translations of writings by the familiar and the obscure, together with thought-provoking introductions and supporting apparatus, make this an indispensable text for the study of modern Japanese culture and society." —Norma M. Field, University of Chicago Over the past thirty years translations of Japanese women’s writing and biographies of women writers have enriched and expanded our understanding of modern Japanese literature. But how have women writers been received and read in Japan? To appreciate the subterfuges, strategies, and choices that the modern Japanese woman writer has faced, readers must consider the criticisms leveled against her, the expectations and admonitions that have been whispered in her ear, and pay attention to the way she herself has responded. What did it mean to be a woman writer in twentieth-century Japan? How was she defined and how did this definition limit her artistic sphere? Woman Critiqued builds on existing scholarship by offering English-language readers access to some of the more salient critiques that have been directed at women writers, on the one hand, and reactions to these by women writers, on the other. The grouping of the essays into chapters organized by theme clarifies how the discussion in Japan has been framed by certain assumptions and how women have repeatedly tried to intervene by playing with, undercutting, or attempting to exceed these assumptions. Chapter introductions contextualize the translated essays historically and draw out aspects that warrant particular scrutiny or explication. Although the translators do not cover all aspects or genres identified with women’s literary endeavors in the twentieth-century, they provide a significant understanding of the evaluative systems under which Japanese women writers have worked. Woman Critiqued will be eagerly read by specialists in modern Japanese literature and those interested in comparative literature, women’s studies, gender studies, and history. Featured writers: Akitsu Ei, Akiyama Shun, Hara Shiro, Hasegawa Izumi, Kobayashi Hideo, Kora Rumiko, Matsuura Rieko, Mishima Yukio, Mitsuhashi Takajo, Mizuta Noriko, Miwata Masako, Oguri Fuyo, Okuno Takeo, Ooka Makoto, Saito Minako, Shibusawa Tatsuhiko, Setouchi Harumi, Takahara Eiri, Takahashi Junko, Takahashi Takako, Tanaka Miyoko, Tomioka Taeko, Tsujii Takashi, Tanizaki Jun’ichiro, Tsushima Yoko, Yosano Akiko. Translators: Tomoko Aoyama, Jan Bardsley, Janine Beichman, Rebecca L. Copeland, Mika Endo, Joan E. Ericson, Barbara Hartley, Maryellen Toman Mori, Yoshiko Nagaoka, Kathryn Pierce, Laurel Rasplica Rodd, Amanda Seaman, Eiji Sekine, Judy Wakabayashi.

This volume of twelve essays with useful bibliographies, in the fields of history, art, religion, literature, anthropology, political science, and law, documents the history of United States scholarship on Japan since 1945.

Joan Ericson's magnificent survey of writing by Japanese women significantly advances the current debate over the literary category of "women's literature" in modern Japan and demonstrates its significance in the life and work of twentieth-century Japan's most important woman writer, Hayashi Fumiko (1903-1951). Until the early 1980s, the literary category of "women's literature" (joryu bungaku) segregated most writing by modern Japanese women from the literary canon. "Women's literature" was viewed as a sentimental and impressionistic literary style that was popular but was critically disparaged. A close scrutiny of Hayashi Fumiko's work--in particular the two pieces masterfully translated here, the immensely popular novel Horoki (Diary of a Vagabond) and Suisen (Narcissus)--shows the inadequacies of categorizing her writing as "women's literature." Its originality and power are rooted in the clarity and immediacy with which Hayashi is able to convey the humanity of those occupying the underside of Japanese society, especially women.