Uchida Hyakken

Uchida Hyakken

Uchida Hyakken ( Japanese 内 田 百 閒 , also Hyakkien 百 鬼 園 ; born May 29, 1889 in Okayama as Uchida Eizō ( 内 田 榮 造 ); † April 20, 1971 ) was a Japanese writer.

Life

Uchida Eizō was born as the only son into the family of a sake brewer in Okayama and had a very happy childhood there, spoiled by his grandmother. In 1910 he entered the German Department of the Imperial University of Tōkyō and joined the literary-intellectual circle around the famous author Natsume Sōseki (1867-1916). As the author of haiku poems, he chooses the stage name Hyakken. In 1912 he married a friend's sister. The budding Germanist finished his studies in 1914 with a thesis on Hermann Sudermann's novel Frau Sorge . In the same year the daughter Tamino was born, the year before the son Hisakichi was born. Hyakken now worked as a German teacher and was given a position at Hōsei University in 1920 , which he gave up in 1934. The reason for this were disputes within the German Department. He processed his bitter experiences in a novel entitled Revolt of the Bread Eaters . From a literary point of view, Hyakken was always present with his mishaps, travel reports and diary entries. He devoted himself to writing until the end of his long life. He died on April 20, 1971 at the age of eighty-one.

Uchida Hyakken, monument

In Japan the author is known as a lovable eccentric, whose restlessness and lavish lifestyle are the main motifs in the 1993 film adaptation of his life made by Kurosawa Akira under the title Mādadayo ( ま あ だ だ よ ). There was already a Hyakken renaissance in Japan in the 1980s. Today the author is considered the favorite writer of successful women writers such as B. Kawakami Hiromi , in whose novel The sky is blue, the earth is white (Ger. 2007) it says about the author: "Uchida is really a brilliant writer" (p. 78). Hyakken's works include the short prose anthologies Meido ( 冥 途 , 1922; “From the Shadow World ”), Ryojun Nyujōshiki ( 旅順 入城 式 , 1934; “Ceremonial Entry into Port Arthur”), Isōrō Sōsō ( 居 候 匇 々 , 1936; “Uprising Der Brotfresser ”), Tokyo Nikki ( 東京 日記 , 1938;“ Diary notes from Tōkyō ”), the short story Sarasāte no ban ( サ ラ サ ー テ の 盤 1948;“ The Sarasate record ”), the travel report Ahō Ressha ( 阿 房 列車 , 1952;“ Uchida Hyakken's train journeys ”) as well as the late collections of essays Neko ga Kuchi o Kiita ( 猫 が 口 を 利 い た , 1970;“ The cat has talked ”) and Nichibotsu Heimon ( 日 沒 閉門 , 1976;“ When the days are running out, stay the gate closed ”). The Japanese editions of the author's complete works comprise over 30 volumes.

Literary work

Uchida is a representative of modern Japanese literature, which on the one hand orientates itself on traditional forms ( haiku , zuihitsu ), on the other hand implements western currents. In the case of the Japanese Germanist, these are adaptations of Romanticism, but Hyakken's texts also show features of literary movements after 1900. Hyakken's work, which can partly be assigned to literary fantasy (Japanese gensō bungaku ), is characterized by his modern sense of humor critical moments and a subtle portrayal of the protagonists' psychology.

Hyakken's first book, Meido (“Aus dem Schattenreich”, German at DVA 2009, translated by Lisette Gebhardt), is a collection of eighteen eerie dream stories. The protagonist's wanderings through a labyrinth of frightening dreams are marked by disorientation in each of the episodes. Contours blur, rooms expand unusually, the sequence of lightness and darkness no longer obeys the laws of physics. The focus is on the sensory impressions of the first-person narrator. In the last episode, "Realm of Shadows", the protagonist can barely recognize the people in his immediate vicinity, but he can clearly hear noises. According to his understanding, an insect makes scratchy sounds on a paper wall. With the sound association of the wasp, the vision of the father and a wistful, melancholy memory of childhood are connected in the form of synaesthesia . The eighteen stories in “From the Shadow Realm ” form a cycle that begins with “Fireworks” ( Hanabi ) and ends with “Shadow Realm ” ( Meido ). In many of the episodes, "I" is on the move on a gloomy embankment, meets strange women there and is duped in the most mean way by insidious magic foxes ( kitsune ). Threatening female figures, strange animals, scary children and embarrassing situations determine the text cosmos of Hyakken's "Shadow Realm", in which the childish, egoistic protagonist, who is committed to indulgence, has to live through his purgatory. In terms of their originality and fantastic quality, Hyakken's texts occupy a special place in modern Japanese literature.

See also

• Madadayo (Director: Kurosawa Akira)

literature

• Lisette Gebhardt : Epilogue: From the world of shadows. In: Uchida Hyakken: From the realm of shadows . DVA, Munich 2009, pp. 163-169.

Web links

Commons : Hyakken Uchida  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Uchida Hyakken in the catalog of the German National Library
• Uchida Hyakken from Random House

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