Sakaguchi Ango

Sakaguchi Ango (1946)

Sakaguchi Ango ( Japanese 坂 口 安 吾 ; actually: 坂 口 炳 五 Sakaguchi Heigo ; born October 20, 1906 in Niitsu Prefecture Niigata ; † February 17, 1955 in Kiryū ) was a Japanese narrator and essayist.

Life

Ango was born the eleventh of twelve children to a wealthy landowning family. His father was a local politician and president of the Niigata Shimbun. Ango studied Indian philosophy from 1926 to 1930 at Tōyō University . From 1931 on, he and friends published the literary magazine in which he published his first short stories. In 1931 he made his debut with the stories "From the wine cellar, in which an icy wind blows" ( Kogarashi no sakagura kara ), "The village of Kurotani" ( Kurotani mura ) and "Dr. Wind "( Kaze hakase ). Although he received first recognition for his subsequent novel "The Story of a Snowstorm" ( Fubuki monogatari ), it was only after the Second World War that he succeeded with the works "Die Wahnsinnige" ( Hakuchi ), "The Coat and the Blue Sky" ( Gaitō to aozora ) and the grotesque story “In the cherry forest in full bloom” ( Sakura no mori no mankai no shita ) the breakthrough. Thematically, Ango's work is shaped by the fear and being lost in modern humans.

At the age of 27 he met Yada Tsuneko, with whom he led a vagabond and bohemian life. In 1947 he married the writer Kaji Michiyo , with whom he had a daughter. He died of a brain aneurysm in his home in 1955 at the age of only 48. Since 2006 the city of Niigata has awarded the Ango Prize ( 安 吾 賞 , Angoshō ) in his memory .

Prizes and awards

• 1949 Nihon Suiri Sakka Kyōkaishō ( 日本 推理 作家協会 賞 , Mystery Writers of Japan Awards )

Works (selection)

• 1931 “Dr. Wind "( 風 博士 , Kaze hakase )
• 1935 "The village of Kurotani" ( 黒 谷 村 , Kurotani mura )
• 1938 "Story of a Snow Storm" ( 吹 雪 物語 , Fubuki monogatari )
• 1942 "The Pearl" ( 真珠 , Shinju )
• 1947 "Die Wahnsinnige" ( 白痴 , Hakuchi )
• 1947 "The coat and the blue sky" ( 外套 と 青 空 , Gaitō to aozora )
• 1947 "In the cherry tree forest in full bloom" ( 桜 の 森 の 満 開 の 下 , Sakura no mori no mankai no shita )
  • dt. in: The Great Japan Reading Book . Goldmann 1994. ISBN 3442098866

Web links

• Digital copies of his works at Aozora
• "Smashing the Mirror of Yamato: Sakaguchi Ango , Decadence and a (Post-metaphysical) Buddhist Critique of Culture (English, available with Google or Facebook account)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 坂口 安 吾 . In: デ ジ タ ル 版 日本人 名 大 辞典 + Plus at kotobank.jp. Kodansha, 2009, accessed February 2, 2012 (Japanese). 
2. ↑ Jürgen Berndt: Sakaguchi Ango . In: Gerhard Steiner, Herbert Greiner-Mai , Wolfgang Lehmann (ed.): Lexicon of foreign language writers . tape 3 . Bibliographisches Institut Leipzig, Leipzig 1977, p. 213 .

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . So Sakaguchi is the family name, Ango the first name.