Shishi Bunroku

Shishi Bunroku

Shishi Bunroku ( Japanese 獅子 文 六 ; real name: Iwata Toyoo ( 岩田 豊 雄 ); born July 1, 1893 in Yokohama ; † December 13, 1969 ) was a Japanese writer and theater director.

Life

Shishi Bunroku attended Keio University . In 1937 he organized with Kishida Kunio and others the "Bungakuza" - (文学 座) theater in Tōkyō and tried to introduce the French theater in Japan. From 1936 to 1937 he wrote his first serial novel for a newspaper "Etchan" (悦 ち ゃ ん), rich in humor and irony. Half a dozen other serial novels followed by the end of the Pacific War , including "Marine" (海軍, Kaigun) about a submarine crew who participated in the attack on Pearl Harbor , which enjoyed great popularity and several of which were filmed.

1950 appeared "The School of Freedom" (自由 学校, 'Jiyū Gakkō), a representation of life in Japan after World War II, in the magazine Asahi Shimbun before it was published in 1951 as a book. The novel became a bestseller in Japan in the 1950s, was filmed several times and was published in 2006 in English and French translation. From 1953 to 1956 he published the autobiographical story "My daughter and I" (娘 と 私, Musume to watakushi).

In 1969 Shishi was awarded the Order of Culture .

Works (selection)

• My daughter and i i . Translated from the Japanese by Konami / Schiffer. Tokyo 1967.
• My daughter and I II . Translated from the Japanese by Konami / Schiffer. Tokyo 1968.

literature

• S. Noma (Ed.): Shishi Bunroku . In: Japan. An Illustrated Encyclopedia. Kodansha, 1993, ISBN 4-06-205938-X , p. 1397.

swell

• University of Michigan - Center of Japanese Studies Publications: School of Freedom
• Cambridge Journals: "Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies" , p. 600 f
• La Litterature Japonaise - Shishi Bunroku
• 

  Commons : Bunroku Shishi  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Web links

"Bunroku Shishi: Finding humor in a recovering postwar Japan" , Japan Times (Eng.)

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