Maruya Saiichi

Maruya Saiichi, 2011

Maruya Saiichi ( Japanese 丸 谷 才 一 ; born August 27, 1925 in Tsuruoka ; † October 13, 2012 in Tokyo ) was a Japanese writer .

Life

Saiichi was born the son of a doctor in Yamagata Prefecture. He began studying English at the University of Tokyo , which he completed in 1950 with a thesis on James Joyce . From 1953 he was a lecturer at the Kokugakuin University in Tokyo . In addition to his academic career, he was soon known and appreciated for his translations of the works of Graham Greene . The debut work is Ehoba no kao o sakete ( エ ホ バ の 顔 を 避 erschien て ), which was published as a book in 1960 and, unusual for Japan, is based on the Old Testament. Saiichi's literary breakthrough came with Sasamakura ( 笹 ま く ら , The Bamboo Pillow), which is strongly influenced by Joycen's theory of the stream of consciousness .

For his work Toshi no nokori (1968, German: "The rest of the year") he was awarded the Akutagawa Prize ; for Tatta hitori no hanran (1972, German: "The uprising of an individual") the Tanizaki Jun'ichirō Prize , for Gotobain 1973 the Yomiuri Literature Prize and for Jueitan ( 樹影 譚 ) 1988 the Kawabata Yasunari Literature Prize . In 2006 he was honored as a person with special cultural merits , in 2011 he was awarded the Order of Culture .

Saiichi died of heart failure on October 13, 2012 in a Tokyo hospital .

Works (selection)

Published in German translation:

• The journalist , translated from Japanese by Sabine Mangold and Hayasaki Yukari. Frankfurt am Main: Insel Verlag, 1997. ISBN 3458168435
• Tree shade , translated from Japanese by Tobias Cheung, Edition Nippon, Angkor Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2010 ISBN 978-3-936018-76-9

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} Prize-winning writer Saiichi Maruya dies at 87. The Mainichi, October 14, 2012, archived from the original on December 19, 2012 ; accessed on October 15, 2012 . 
2. ↑ Snapshots of Modern Japanese Literature. Edited by Jürgen Berndt and Hiroomi Fukuzawa, Berlin, Silver & Goldstein, 1990, p. 46, ISBN 3-927463-10-8

Web links

• Literature by and about Maruya Saiichi in the catalog of the German National Library

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