Nakano Kōji

Nakano Kōji ( Japanese 中 野 孝 次 ; born January 1, 1925 in Ichikawa ( Chiba Prefecture ); died July 16, 2004 ) was a Japanese writer and German scholar.

Live and act

Nakano Kōji was born in 1925 as the son of a carpenter. In 1950 he graduated from the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Tokyo with a degree in German. Nakano translated and a. Franz Kafka , Hans Erich Nossack , wrote extensively about Max Frisch and generally about contemporary literature. Politically, Nakano was a pacifist and signed with Yasushi Inoue , Hisashi Inoue , Kenzaburo Oe and others. a., a call against rearmament. This led to a confrontation with other pacifists such as Yoshimoto Takaaki and Kōjin Karatani .

Works (selection)

“A journey to Bruegel” (ブ リ ュ ー ゲ ル へ の 旅, Bruegel he no tabi) from 1976, a collection of essays. The autobiographical trilogy “On the day when the grain ripens” (麦 熟 る る 日 に, Mugi ururu hi ni) 1978, awarded the Hirabayashi Taiko Literature Prize , “Bitter Summer” (苦 い 夏, Nigai natsu) 1979 and "End of the season" (季節 の 終 り, Kisestsu no owari) 1980.

The dog story “The Days with Haras” (ハ ラ ス の い た 日 々; Haras no ita hibi), which received the “Nitta Jirō Literature Prize” (新 田 次郎 文学 賞), became a bestseller, came on television and was made into a film.

literature

• S. Noma (Ed.): Nakano Kōji . In: Japan. An Illustrated Encyclopedia. Kodansha, 1993, ISBN 4-06-205938-X , p. 1040.

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