Koda Aya

Koda Aya

Kōda Aya ( Japanese 幸 田 文 ; born September 1, 1904 in Tokyo ; † October 31, 1990 ) was a Japanese essayist and novelist. She was the second eldest daughter of Kōda Rohan and attended the Tōkyōter women's school Joshigakuin . Her daughter Aoki Tama and her granddaughter Aoki Nao also became writers. Characteristic of the works of Kōda Aya are their clear expressiveness and their moral ideas.

Life

Kōda Aya was born in the then Tokyo district of Mukōjima (merged with Honjo to form today's Sumida in 1947 ). At the age of five she lost her mother, and later also her (younger) sister and her (younger) brother. She married at the age of 24, but divorced ten years later and returned to her father's house, Kōda Rohan , with her daughter Tama (see: Aoki Tama ) . During the Second World War , she took a job to secure her father's livelihood (this is described in Aoki Tamas Koishikawa no ie ( 小 石川 の 家 ), dt. "The house in Koishikawa").

After Kōda Rohan's death, she processed her memories in Chichi ( 父 , dt. "My father") and Konna koto ( こ ん な こ と , dt. "Such a matter", "So it was"). She attracted attention by publishing essays such as Misokkasu ( み そ っ か す , German for "The Outsider", literally the title denotes the miso remnants that are often left in the bowl when drinking miso soup, for example ). After that, however, she recognized the limitations of the essay and completed her long novel Nagareru in 1955 , in which she processed experience gained while working and living in a geisha house and for which she was awarded the Japanese Art Academy Prize and the Shinchōsha Literature Prize. This enabled her to establish herself as a writer. In 1955 she received the Yomiuri Literature Prize for Kuroi suso .

In her later years, Kōda Aya worked to rebuild the pagodas of temples across Japan. She died on October 31, 1990 at the age of 86.

Major works

• Kuroi Suso ( 黒 い 裾 , German "black hem")
• Nagareru ( 流 れ る , dt. "[To-] flow")
• Tatakai ( 闘 , German "fight")
• Otōto ( お と う と , dt. "My little brother")
• Misokkasu ( み そ っ か す , German roughly "outsider")
• Shūen ( 終 焉 , German about "The last hours")
• Sōsō no ki ( 葬送 の 記 , dt. "Burial records")

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus, Kōda is the family name, Aya the first name.