Kenji Nakagami

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nakagami Kenji ( Japanese 中 上 健 次 , actually Nakaue Kenji ( 中 上 健 次 ); born August 2, 1946 in Shingū in Wakayama Prefecture ; † August 12, 1992 in Nachikatsuura in Higashimuro-gun County, also Wakayama Prefecture) was a Japanese writer .

Life

Nakagami was born to Kinoshita Chisato ( 木 下 ち さ と ) and Suzuki Ryūzō ( 鈴木 留 造 ), a businessman from Shingū in Wakayama Prefecture. Although Suzuki Ryūzō was extremely successful as a businessman and also very wealthy, the parents separated soon after Kenji's birth. Suzuki Ryūzō returned to a woman whom he met before Kenji's mother Chisato and who gave birth to a daughter. In the meantime, Chisato gave birth to two more boys. In addition, the relationship between Kenji's father Ryūzō and another woman resulted in another daughter, which led to a great mess in the family situation. Nakagami was married to the Japanese writer Kiwa Kyō ( 紀 和 鏡 ), with whom he had two daughters. The older daughter, Nakagami Nori ( 中 上 紀 ), is also a writer like her parents, the younger daughter Nakagami Naoko ( 中 上菜 穂 ) makes art ceramics.

On the one hand, Chisato and her husband Kinoshita Shōtarō ( 木 下 勝 太郎 ) already had 5 children from their first marriage, on the other hand, Chisato gave birth to another son named Nakaue Shichirō after separating from Ryūzō? ( 中 上 七郎 ). Therefore, when Kenji attended middle school, he and his brother were entered in the family registry under the name Nakaue. As a result, Kenji's youth was shaped by these endlessly complicated circumstances, being the third son on the mother's side, the first son on the father's side, also being the oldest son in the family register and growing up as the second son at home. The childhood stories he heard from his grandmother and mother had a major impact on the shaping of Kenji's later literary world.

In 1953, Kenji started school at the 穂 千 穂 elementary school in Shingū. He spent a lot of time in nature and in the mountains. Around the time Kenji finished 6th grade, his stepbrother, Kinoshita Kōhei, who was 12 years older, hanged himself. ( 木 下 公平 ). For Kenji, this suicide was a decisive experience that can be found many times in his work. After graduating from 立 緑 丘 middle school, he attended the state high school of Wakayama Prefecture from 1962. Although physically tall Kenji was considered a failing teenager during middle school, he began to read books fanatically. As if obsessed and with great joy, Nakagami read de Sade , Céline and Genet in high school , but soon afterwards also Japanese narrators such as Ōe Kenzaburō and Shintarō Ishihara ( 石原慎太郎 ). During high school he wrote his first work Akai Gishiki ( 赤 い 儀式 ).

In 1965, Nakagami moved to Tokyo with a school friend to take the university entrance exam. As a student at a preparatory school for the entrance exam at the university, he lived on financial support (from his parents) and moved frequently: from Takadanobaba ( 高田 馬 場 ) to Yoyogi ( 代 々 木 ) to Numabukuro ( 沼 袋 ) and Nerima ( 練 馬 ). In the same year he became a member of the Bungei Shuto and published Juhassai ( 十八 歳 ) in the magazine of the same name. During this time he admired the New Left ( Shisayoku ), deepened his passion for modern jazz and wrote articles for all kinds of magazines, such as Shigaku ( 詩 学 ) and Bungakkai ( 文学界 ).

In 1968 Nakagami got to know through the literary magazine Mita Bungaku ( 三 田 文学 ) Karatani Kōjin, who recommended Faulkner to him and who thus had a great influence on Nakagami. In 1970 he met Shuto Yamaguchi Kasumi through the Bungei , who made her debut with a ghost novel a little later under the name Kiwa Kyō. Due to Kiwa Kyō's pregnancy and marriage, Nakagami began working as a freight worker at Narita Airport in August. Although he financed the family as a delivery driver and forklift driver, he remained committed to writing.

With the works Jūkyūsai no chizu ( 十九 歳 の 地 図 ), Hatodomo no ie ( 鳩 ど も の 家 ) and Jōtokuji Tsuā ( 浄 徳 寺 ツ ア ー ), which he created from 1973, Nakagami was a candidate for the Akutagawa Prize. In 1976 he was the 74th recipient of the Akutagawa Prize for Misake . He is the first award winner to be born after the war. The following year he published Kareki nada ( 枯木 灘 ), his masterpiece as a sequel to Misaki . With Kareki nada , Nakagami earned a great reputation, as he describes in short sentences the history of the peculiarities and origins of the young and hard-working youth in Kishu. For this novel he received the Mainichi Newspaper Literature Prize ( Mainichi Shuppan Bunkashō 毎 日 出版 文化 賞 ) and the Geijutsu Senshō Prize ( 芸 術 選 奨 ).

The own identity as Buraku found its way into the work Roji 路地 (as Buraku members of a minority are referred to, who are mostly discriminated against by the majority population and who live in demarcated residential areas). Nakagami later devoted himself to this subject at a time when he himself was doing heavy physical work at Narita Airport . Nakagami's early work is strongly influenced by the literary style of Ōe Kenzaburōs . Inspired by Karatani Kōjin ( 柄 谷 行人 ), Nakagami studied William Faulkner's method of exaggeration and local flavor, which he used in numerous stories, which are set in the Kishū and Kumano regions . In particular in the Kishū saga 紀 州 サ ー ガ he put the topic of descent into the center and worked it out, which is why it is considered characteristic of this topic and for the customs and traditions of the locals. In 1976 Nagagami was the 74th recipient of the Akutagawa Prize for Misaki ( 岬 ). Kenji was the first Akutagawa laureate to be born after the war.

The high level of tobacco consumption as a writer led to Nakagami with kidney cancer being admitted to the Japanese-Filipino hospital in Nachikatsuuracho in Higashimurogun County in the summer of 1992, where he also died. The works Wani no seiiki , Izoku , Neppū ( 熱風 ), Araragi no sūgō ( 蘭 の 崇高 ), Utsubo monogatari ( 宇 津 保 物語 ) remained unfinished, the works Izoku and Wani no seiiki were published posthumously, all other works in the complete edition.

Prizes and awards

  • 1976 Akutagawa Prize for Misaki ( 岬 )
  • 1977 Literature Prize of the Mainichi newspaper Mainichi Shuppan Bunkashō
  • 1977 Geijutsu Senshō Shinjinshō

Works

Novels

  • 1977 Kareki nada ( 枯木 灘 dt. The Sea of ​​Dead Trees)
  • 1980 Hōsenka ( 鳳仙花 dt. The balsam )
  • 1983 Chi no hate, shijō no toki ( 地 の 果 て 至上 の 時 dt. At the end of the earth, at the end of time)
  • 1984 Monogatari souru ( 物語 ソ ウ ル )
  • 1984 Nichirin no tsubasa ( 日 輪 の 翼 dt. The sun disk)
  • 1984 Kii monogatari ( 紀 伊 物語 )
  • 1985 Yasei no kaenju ( 野生 の 火炎 樹 )
  • 1986 Jūkyūsai no jeikobu ( 十九 歳 の ジ ェ イ コ ブ )
  • 1987 Hi matsuri ( 火 ま つ り )
  • 1987 Ten no uta: Shōsetsu Miyako Harumi ( 天 の 歌 ： 小説 都 は る み )
  • 1989 Kiseki ( 奇蹟 )
  • 1990 Sanka ( 讃 歌 )
  • 1992 Keibetsu ( 軽 蔑 )
  • 1992 Wani no seiiki ( 鰐 の 聖域 ) - unfinished
  • 1993 Izoku ( 異族 ) - unfinished

Short stories / narratives

  • 1974 Jūkyūsai no chizu ( 十九 歳 の 地 図 )
  • 1975 Hatodomo no ie ( 鳩 ど も の 家 ) - with Nihongo ni tsuite 日本語 に つ い て , Haiiro no kokakōra 灰色 の コ カ コ ー ラ
  • 1976 Misaki ( 岬 )
  • 1976 Ja'in ( 蛇 淫 )
  • 1977 Jūhassai, umi e ( 十八 歳 、 海 へ )
  • 1978 Keshō ( 化粧 )
  • 1979 Mizu no onna ( 水 の 女 )
  • 1982 Sennen no yuraku ( 千年 の 愉 楽 )
  • 1984 Kumano-shū ( 熊 野 集 )
  • 1988 Jūryoku no miyato ( 重力 の 都 ) homage to Tanizaki Jun'ichirō's story Shunkinshō ( 春 琴 抄 )

essay

  • 1976 Tori no yō ni kemono no yō ni ( 鳥 の よ う に 獣 の よ う に )
  • 1977 Jazu to bakutan Nakagami Kenji vs Murakami Ryū ( ジ ャ ズ と 爆 弾 中 上 健 次 VS 村上 龍 )
  • 1978 Kishu : ki no kuni; kon no kuni monogatari ( 紀 州 ： 木 の 国 ・ 根 の 国 物語 )
  • 1979 Yume no chikara ( 夢 の 力 )
  • 1979 Hakaseyo, to arubato aira ha itta ( 破 壊 せ よ 、 とア ル バ ー ト ・ ア イ ラ ーは 言 っ た )
  • 1979 Kobayashi Hideo wo koete ( 小 林秀雄 を こ え て )
  • 1981 Tōyō ni ichisuru ( 東洋 に 位置 す る )
  • 1984 Fūkei no mukō e ( 風景 の 向 こ う へ )
  • 1984 Kimi ha Yayoijin ka Jōmonjin ka ( 君 は 弥 生人 か 縄 文人 か )
  • 1985 Miyako Harumi ni sasageru ( 都 は る み に 捧 げ る )
  • 1985 America, America
  • 1985 Hi no bungaku ( 火 の 文学 )
  • 1985 Rinbusuru, souru ( 輪 舞 す る 、 ソ ウ ル )
  • 1985 Haiku no jidai ( 俳 句 の 時代 )
  • 1985 Supanisshu Kyaraban wo sagashite ( ス パ ニ ッ シ ュ ・ キ ャ ラ バ ン を 捜 し て )
  • 1986 On the Border
  • 1987 America to gashūkoku to no aida ( ア メ リ カ と 合衆国 と の 間 )
  • 1988 Jidai ga owari, jidai ga hajimaru ( 時代 が 終 わ り 、 時代 が 始 ま る )
  • 1988 Baffarō Sorujā ( バ ッ フ ァ ロ ー ・ ソ ル ジ ャ ー )
  • 1990 Kaitaisareru basho ( 解体 さ れ る 場所 )
  • 1992 Mondōmuyō ( 問答 無用 )
  • 1993 Kotodama no tenchi ( 言 霊 の 天地 )
  • 1993 Yomigaeru jōmon no shisō ( 甦 る 縄 文 の 思想 )
  • 2004 Fūkei no mukō monogatari no keifu ( 風景 の 向 う へ ・ 物語 の 系譜 )

Varia

  • In 2005 the action comic Minami kaikisen 南 回 帰 船 , published by Futabasha, 1990–1991, script: Kenji Nakagami, draftsman: Tanaka Akio 4 vols. (Unfinished)

Film adaptations

  • Hi matsuri . Director: Yanagimachi Mitsuo ( 柳 町 光 男 ), screenplay for the film by Kenji Nakagami
  • Yes'in . Director: Yanagimachi Mitsuo based on Ozaki Yutaga's Jūshichisai no chizu ( 十七 歳 の 地 図 )
  • Nichirin no tsubasa . Broadcast in 1991 as a drama for NHK .

Others

Nakagami was a regular visitor to a jazz cafe where Bīto Takeshi (ビ ー ト た け し) (real name Kitanō Takeshi 北野 武 ) and Nagayama Norio ( 永 山 則 夫 ) performed. Nakagami and Takeshi became good friends; Magazines printed many of the two conversations (compiled in the special edition Bungei Bessatsu Keji Nakagami ). As Nagayama 1990, enrolling in the Japanese Writers' Association Shadanhōjin Nihon Bungeika Kyokai ( 社団法人日本文藝家協会 was denied) because of a felony, were Nakagami, Karatani Kōjin ( 柄谷行人 ), Iguchi Tokyo ( 井口時男 ) and Tsutsui Yasutaka ( 筒井康隆 ) from the association in protest.

The lifelong friendship with Miyako Harumi is also the subject of two stories by Nakagami. When Miyako learned of Nakagami's death, she immediately embarked on a long journey by train and plane to Shingu to see Nakagami one last time.

Even today, every summer in Shingu, the Kumano University organizes a Kenji Nakagami symposium in Shingu, in which Karatani Kōjin and Asada Akira ( 浅田 彰 ) also take part as speakers. One of Kenji's students is, for example, Mobu Norio ( モ ブ ・ ノ リ オ ). (The organization is carried out by a homeland association that was founded during Nakagami's lifetime.)

literature

Primary literature

  • Karatani Kojin, Suga Hidemi, Daisan Bunmeisha (eds.): Nakagami Kenji Hatsugen Shusei . [Volume 1–4: Conversations, Volume 5: Conversations and Interviews, Volume 6: Lectures] 6-volume Japanese edition
  • Kenji Nakagami: Shugen - The Bergasket . Translated by Siegfried Schaarschmidt. In: The Great Japan Reader . Munich 1990, ISBN 3-442-09886-6 , pp. 303-313
  • Kenji Nakagami: Takao and Mitsuko . Translated by Uwe Hohmann. In: Japan aktuell 5 (1990) p. 26; 6 (1990) pp. 36-37; 1 (1991) p. 37
  • Kenji Nakagami: From the wings of a novel . In: Contemporary Japanese Literature . Edited by Siegfried Schaarschmidt and Michiko Mae. Munich 1990, ISBN 3-446-15929-0 , pp. 81-83
  • Kenji Nakagami: Mandala of lusts . Translated by Siegfried Schaarschmidt. Rowohlt, 1997, ISBN 3-499-13791-7
  • Kenji Nakagami: Kishū: stories from the land of trees, land of roots; Extracts . From Japan. by Hans Heid. Mori-Ôgai Memorial of the Humboldt University, Berlin 2006
  • Kenji Nakagami: Futakami . Translated by Birgit Gößmann, Gabriela Reimer and Ulrike Wöhr. In: Wolfgang Schamoni et al. (Ed.): Booklets for East Asian literature . Munich 1993, ISBN 3-89129-337-2 , pp. 11-17
  • Kenji Nakagami: Gongu - The desire for bliss [extract]. Translated by Sabine Mangold and Yukari Hayasaki. In: Jürgen Berndt, Hiroomi Fukuzawa (ed.): Snapshots of modern Japanese literature . Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-927463-10-8 , pp. 128-129
  • Kenji Nakagami: The Cape and Other Stories from the Japanese Ghetto . Stone Bridge Press, 2008, ISBN 1-933330-43-0 (English)
  • Kenji Nakagami: Miracle . Translated by Jacques Lévy. Arles Picquier, 2004 (French)

Secondary literature

  • Jürgen Stalph, Gisela Ogasa, Dörte Puls: Modern Japanese literature in German translation . A bibliography from 1868–1994. Munich 1995, ISBN 3-89129-829-3
  • Akiyama Shun: The purity of hearing . In: Siegfried Schaarschmidt, Michiko Mae (Hrsg.): Japanese contemporary literature . Munich 1990, pp. 83-85 ISBN 3-446-15929-0
  • Eve Zimmerman: Out of the Alleyway: Nakagami Kenji and the Poetics of Outcaste Fiction . Harvard East Asian Monographs, Harvard University Asia Center, 2008, ISBN 0-674-02603-9
  • Noriko Miura: Marginal Voice, Marginal Body: The Treatment Of The Human Body in the Works of Nakagami Kenji, Leslie Marmon Silko, and Salman Rushdie . Dissertation, 2000, ISBN 1-58112-109-1
  • Mats Karlsson: The Kumano saga of Nakagami Kenji . Stockholm Univ., Stockholm 2001, ISBN 91-7265-354-X (Dissertation, 168 pages)
  • Eve Kathleen Zimmerman: A language of rebellion. Myth, violence and identity in the fiction of Nakagami Kenji . Columbia Univ., New York 1997, Diss.
  • Faye Yuan Kleeman: The uses of myth in modern Japanese literature: Nakagami Kenji, Öe Kenzaburō, and Kurahashi Yumiko . Univ. of California, Berkeley 1991, Diss.

Web links

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Nakagama is the family name, Kenji the first name.
personal data
SURNAME Nakagami, Kenji
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 中 上 健 次 (Japanese); Nakaue, Kenji (real name); 中 上 健 次 (Japanese, real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Japanese writer
DATE OF BIRTH August 2, 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH Shingū , Wakayama Prefecture
DATE OF DEATH August 12, 1992
Place of death Nachikatsuura , Wakayama Prefecture