Nogami Yaeko

Nogami Yaeko at the age of 20

Nogami Yaeko ( Japanese 野 上 弥 生子 ; * May 6, 1885 in Usuki ; † March 30, 1985 ); actually Nogami Yae ( 野 上 ヤ ヱ ) was a Japanese writer.

Life

Nogami Yaeko was born in Usuki , Ōita Prefecture, the daughter of a sake brewer. At the age of 14 she moved to Tōkyō and attended the Meiji Jogakkō School there. In 1906 she married Nogami Toyoichirō , a student of Natsume Sōseki , and began her writing career in 1907 by publishing the novel Enishi ( 縁 '[love] connection') in the magazine Hototogisu . As a writer, she was active until her death at the age of 99.

When "proletarian literature" came up at the beginning of the Shōwa period , she published Machiko ( 真知 子 ), one of her most famous works, in which she described the problems between the reform movement and morality. She also wrote Wakai musuko ( 若 い 息 子 'The Young Son') and Kanashiki Shōnen ( 哀 し き 少年 'The Unfortunate Boy'), both on the subject of conflicting youths between thought and action. When the impending war loomed , it produced numerous critical literature, including Kuroi gyōretsu ( 黒 い 行列 'The Black Procession').

She was on friendly terms with Yuasa Yoshiko and Miyamoto Yuriko . The latter's novel Nobuko is said to have been her inspiration for Mariko . Because of the insights into the way of life of women in the 1920s, Mariko occupies an important place in Japanese literature.

During the Second World War , Nogami Yaeko stayed with her husband in Europe and described this trip in Ōbei no tabi . As a contemporary description of the circumstances of that time, this work is also classified as literarily significant.

After the war she initially took part in the " Shin-nihon-bungakukai ", whose central figure was Miyamoto Yuriko, but ended her participation soon afterwards. The friendly relationship with Miyamoto Yuriko remained nonetheless. Even after she died in 1951, Nogami Yaeko regularly sent flowers to the Miyamoto family on the anniversary of Yuriko's death and is said to have received the same for her husband Toyoichirō, who died in 1950.

Even after the war she often deals with the question of the intellectual's way of life in her works and describes various aspects of life in Meiro ( 迷路 'The Maze'), the continuation of the novel Kuroi gyōretsu , which she was unable to write during the war in the intellectual class up to the defeat of the war. In Hideyoshi to Rikyū ( 秀吉 と 利 休 ) she describes the conflict between the political person (Hideyoshi) and the artistic person (Rikyū). In her later years she begins to write mori ( 森 'forest'), which builds on the characters of her own youth, but this last work remains unfinished.

The Italianist Nogami Soichi was the eldest and the biologist Nogami Mokichirō the second eldest son of Nogami Yaekos. The philosopher Hasegawa Michiko is the daughter of her youngest son.

Awards

• 1957 - Yomiuri Literature Prize for Meiro ( 迷路 )
• 1964 - Women's literature award for Hideyoshi to Rikyū ( 秀吉 と 利 休 )
• 1965 - Appointment to Bunka Kōrōsha, person with special cultural merit
• 1971 - Japanese Order of Culture
• 1980 - Asahi Prize

literature

• Maya Mortimer: A Reporter's Dilemma: Nogami Yaeko in Heidiland . In: Eduard Klopfenstein (Ed.): Japanese writers 1890–2006 , in: Journal of the Swiss Asian Society , Asian Studies LXI-2-2007, pp. 253–277. Peter Lang, Bern, ISSN  0004-4717

Web links

• Anecdotes about Nogami Yaeko (Japanese)
• Nogami Yaeko Museum (Japanese)

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