Akira Abe

Akira Abe ( Japanese 阿 部 昭 , Abe Akira ; born September 22, 1934 in Hiroshima , Hiroshima Prefecture ; † March 19, 1989 in Tsujidō, Fujisawa ) was a Japanese writer.

Life

Abe was born the son of a naval officer in Hiroshima. After his father was transferred in 1935, he spent most of his childhood in Kugenuma, Fujisawa. From 1941 on he attended elementary school in Fujisawa and then in the class under Shintarō Ishihara and Jun Etō the high school Kanagawa. He studied around the same time as Kenzaburō Ōe French literature at the University of Tokyo . During his student days Abe worked as a tutor for the cellists Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi and Kenichirō Yasuda .

After graduating from university in 1959, he worked as a television and radio director at TBS until he began his career as a professional writer in 1971 . In addition to work, he was already writing at this time. For the autobiographical tale Kodomobeya ( 子 供 部屋 ) he received the 1962 Bungakukai Young Talent Award ( 文學界 新人 賞 , Bungakukai Shinjinshō ). In 1970 he drew attention to himself with his story Vacation for Eternity ( Shirei no kyūka ). A year later, Abe quit TBS to devote himself exclusively to writing.

In 1973 he received the Mainichi Culture Prize for Sennen ( 千年 ) . With motifs that repeatedly autobiographically refer to his own family situation, Akira Abe is one of the representatives of the Japanese first-person novel (" Shishōsetsu "). Topics include dealing with the military's loss of authority in the post-war period, which particularly affected his father, and, similar to Oe, living together with a disabled family member. Abe is also a master of short stories.

Abe died of heart failure on March 19, 1989 at the age of only 55 in Tsujidō, a district of Fujisawa. Abe's second son Ryūjirō Abe ( 阿 部 龍 二郎 ) currently works as a department manager at TBS.

Works

• 1970 Ōinaru hi ( 大 い な る 日 )
• 1971 Shirei no kyūka ( 司令 の 休 暇 )
  • German “Vacation for Eternity”, translated by Gudrun Grawe, edition q, Berlin, 1994, ISBN 3-86124-186-2
• 1973 Sennen ( 千年 )
• 1976 Kodomo no himitsu ( 子 供 の 秘密 )
• 1976 Jinsei no ichinichi ( 人生 の 一日 中央 公論 社 )
  • German “Lebenstage”, translated by Detlef Foljanty, in: Erkundungen, 12 storytellers from Japan, Volk und Welt, Berlin, 1992, pp. 218–232
• 1978 Kodomobeya ( 子 供 部屋 )
• 1979 Chichitachi no shōzo ( 父 た ち の 肖像 )
• 1981 sambun no kihon ( 散文 の基本 , basis of prose)
• 1987 rope shōsetsu o katarau ( 短篇小説 を 語 る )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 阿 部 昭 . In: デ ジ タ ル 版 日本人 名 大 辞典 + Plus /kotobank.jp. January 20, 2009; Retrieved July 26, 2011 (Japanese, online version by Nihon Jinmei Daijiten . Kodansha). 
2. ↑ ^{a b} Japanese Literature in Translation Search. (No longer available online.) Japan Foundation, 2012, formerly original ; accessed on November 8, 2019 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )