On The Last Day Of The Year
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On The Last Day Of The Year
is a short story by Japanese writer Ichiyō Higuchi first published in 1894. It tells the story of a young housemaid, Omine, who embezzles money from her employers to help a sick relative. Plot Omine works as a maid in the strict household of Mrs. Yamamura, the rigid wife of a wealthy Tokyo businessman. On her day off shortly before New Year's Eve, she pays a visit to her uncle Yasubei, who raised Omine after the death of her parents. Yasubei has fallen ill and was forced to close down his food store and move into a smaller flat with his family. He begs Omine to keep her job, which she contemplated quitting, and asks her to lend him money, as he is indebted to a loan shark whom he must pay on the thirty-first of the month. Also, he wants to buy his little son Sannosuke some traditional New Year's rice cakes. Omine agrees to help, announcing that she will ask Mrs. Yamamura either for a loan or an advance on her salary, and tells Yasubei to send Sannosuke at noon on the thirty- ...
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Ichiyō Higuchi
, real name or , was a Japanese writer from the Meiji Period. She was Japan's first professional female writer of modern literature, specialising in short stories and poetry, and also an extensive diarist. Biography Early life Natsuko Higuchi was born in Tokyo on 2 May 1872 as the fourth child and second daughter of Noriyoshi Higuchi and Ayame "Taki" Furuya. Her parents were from a peasant community in nearby Yamanashi Prefecture, but her father had managed to procure samurai status in 1867. Despite only enjoying the position for a short time before the samurai caste was abolished with the Meiji Restoration, growing up in a samurai household was a formative experience for her. In 1886, she began studying waka poetry at the Haginoya, a private school run by Utako Nakajima. Here she received weekly poetry lessons and lectures on Japanese literature. There were also monthly poetry competitions in which all students, past and present, were invited to participate. Poetry taught at ...
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Bungakukai
is a Japanese monthly literary magazine published by Bungeishunjū as a oriented publication. History and profile The first version of ''Bungakukai'' was published from 1893 to 1898. The founders were the first generation romantic authors in the country. The magazine featured articles on romanticism, modernism and idealism. The magazine's second version started in October 1933. Bungeishunjū has owned the magazine since then. The headquarters of ''Bungakukai'' is in Tokyo. Along with ''Shinchō'', ''Gunzo'', '' Bungei'' and ''Subaru'', it is one of the five leading literary journals in Japan. It runs a contest Contest may refer to: * Competition * Will contest * Contesting, amateur radio contesting (radiosport) Film and television * ''Contest'' (2013 film), an American film * Contest (1932 film), a German sports film * " The Contest", a 1992 season ... for newcomer writers ''Bungakukai Shinjinshō'' ( ja, 文學界新人賞, Newcomer Award of Literary World). References ...
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Short Story
A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest types of literature and has existed in the form of legends, mythic tales, folk tales, fairy tales, tall tales, fables and anecdotes in various ancient communities around the world. The modern short story developed in the early 19th century. Definition The short story is a crafted form in its own right. Short stories make use of plot, resonance, and other dynamic components as in a novel, but typically to a lesser degree. While the short story is largely distinct from the novel or novella/short novel, authors generally draw from a common pool of literary techniques. The short story is sometimes referred to as a genre. Determining what exactly defines a short story has been recurrently problematic. A classic definition of a short story ...
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Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 million residents ; the city proper has a population of 13.99 million people. Located at the head of Tokyo Bay, the prefecture forms part of the Kantō region on the central coast of Honshu, Japan's largest island. Tokyo serves as Japan's economic center and is the seat of both the Japanese government and the Emperor of Japan. Originally a fishing village named Edo, the city became politically prominent in 1603, when it became the seat of the Tokugawa shogunate. By the mid-18th century, Edo was one of the most populous cities in the world with a population of over one million people. Following the Meiji Restoration of 1868, the imperial capital in Kyoto was moved to Edo, which was renamed "Tokyo" (). Tokyo was devastate ...
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Robert Lyons Danly
Robert Lyons Danly (January 3, 1947 – April 27, 1997) was an award-winning writer, editor and translator of Japanese language and literature. He was also a teacher. Awards and recognition Danly's awards include: * Class of 1923 Award at the University of Michigan for outstanding teaching of undergraduates in 1984. * The 1982 National Book Award for his translation of ‘In the Shade of Spring Leaves: The Life and Writings of Higuchi Ichiyo; A Woman of Letters in Meiji Japan.' * 1983–84 National Endowment of the Humanities grant. * Establishment (in 2006) of the 1969 a Memorial Travel Fellowship in his name which is given to Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ... undergraduate students pursuing studying and researching in Japan over the summer. It is m ...
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Anthology Film
An anthology film (also known as an omnibus film, package film, or portmanteau film) is a single film consisting of several shorter films, each complete in itself and distinguished from the other, though frequently tied together by a single theme, premise, or author. Sometimes each one is directed by a different director or written by a different author, or may even have been made at different times or in different countries. Anthology films are distinguished from " revue films" such as ''Paramount on Parade'' (1930)—which were common in Hollywood in the early decades of sound film, composite films, and compilation films. Sometimes there is a theme, such as a place (e.g. ''New York Stories'', ''Paris, je t'aime''), a person (e.g. ''Four Rooms''), or a thing (e.g. '' Twenty Bucks'', '' Coffee and Cigarettes'', '' Omniboat: A Fast Boat Fantasia''), that is present in each story and serves to bind them together. Two of the earliest films to use the form were Edmund Goulding's '' ...
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An Inlet Of Muddy Water
''An Inlet of Muddy Water'' ( ja, にごりえ, Nigorie) is a 1953 Japanese drama film based on short stories by Ichiyō Higuchi and directed by Tadashi Imai. It was entered into the 1954 Cannes Film Festival and awarded numerous national film prizes. Plot In three episodes, the film portrays the fate of women during the Meiji era: 1. ''The Thirteenth Night:'' Young wife Seki turns up at her parents' house, announcing that she wants to divorce her abusive husband. Her father talks her into returning to her marital home, as her parents' welfare and the career of her brother depend on the marriage, also reminding her that she will have to leave her young son behind. On her way back home in a rickshaw, she discovers that the driver is Rokunosuke, a childhood friend who never got over their separation. They reminisce their once mutual affection, but part ways without an outlook to meeting again. 2. ''On The Last Day Of The Year:'' Mine works as a maid in the strict household of Mr ...
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Tadashi Imai
was a Japanese film director known for Social realism, social realist filmmaking informed by a Left-wing politics, left-wing perspective. His most noted films include ''An Inlet of Muddy Water'' (1953) and ''Bushido, Samurai Saga'' (1963). Life Although leaning towards left-wing politics already at Tokyo University, where he joined a Communism, Communist student group, Imai's directing career, after serving as Script supervisor, continuity writer at J.O. studios (later Toho), started in 1939 with a series of films promoting the war efforts of the Japanese militarism, militarist regime. Later calling these films "the biggest mistake of my life", he soon turned to socially conscious themes after the Pacific War, war. ''Aoi sanmyaku (1949 film), Aoi sanmyaku'' (1949), although a light comedy, observed the educational system, and was successful both with moviegoers and critics. While his 1950 drama ''Until We Meet Again (1950 film), Until We Meet Again'' portrayed a young couple's doo ...
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The Thirteenth Night
is a short story by Japanese writer Ichiyō Higuchi first published in 1895. It follows Oseki Harada, a woman married to an abusive husband, who pays her parents a nightly visit to ask for their assent to a divorce. Plot On the thirteenth night of the ninth month of the year, Oseki Harada stands outside her parents' lower-class house, overhearing her father telling her mother how lucky they are that they have such good children. Oseki has secretly left her upper-class husband Isamu Harada's house, leaving her young son Taro behind, intent on divorcing her husband and asking her parents for their assent. Her father asks her in upon noticing her, with both parents expressing their gratitude towards Oseki's husband, who enabled a higher education for her younger brother Inosuke. They also ask her forgiveness for not visiting her in her home. Oseki, reluctant and polite at first, eventually bursts into tears when she tells her parents of her unhappy marriage with Isamu, who treats h ...
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Nigorie
, translated into English as ''Troubled Waters'' and ''Muddy Bay'', is a short story by Japanese writer Ichiyō Higuchi, written and published in 1895. It depicts the fate of a courtesan in the red light district of a nameless town during the Meiji era. Plot ''Nigorie'' centers around Oriki, the most popular courtesan at the Kikunoi, a brothel in the red light district of an unspecified town, and a group of people connected to her, during the summer Obon festival. Through her conversations with other prostitutes, and Oriki's accounts in the presence of new customer Yūki Tomonosuke, the reader learns that a previous customer, Genshichi, a futon salesman of moderate affluence, was addicted to Oriki and spent all his money at the brothel. Now that Genshichi has been reduced to the hard labor of a construction worker, forced to move with his wife Ohatsu and his young son Takichi into a smaller flat in a run-down section of town, Oriki rejects seeing him despite his pleas. Tomonosuk ...
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1894 Short Stories
Events January–March * January 4 – A military alliance is established between the French Third Republic and the Russian Empire. * January 7 – William Kennedy Dickson receives a patent for motion picture film in the United States. * January 9 – New England Telephone and Telegraph installs the first battery-operated telephone switchboard, in Lexington, Massachusetts. * February 12 ** French anarchist Émile Henry sets off a bomb in a Paris café, killing one person and wounding twenty. ** The barque ''Elisabeth Rickmers'' of Bremerhaven is wrecked at Haurvig, Denmark, but all crew and passengers are saved. * February 15 ** In Korea, peasant unrest erupts in the Donghak Peasant Revolution, a massive revolt of followers of the Donghak movement. Both China and Japan send military forces, claiming to come to the ruling Joseon dynasty government's aid. ** At 04:51 GMT, French anarchist Martial Bourdin dies of an accidental detonation of his own ...
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Japanese Short Stories
Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspora, Japanese emigrants and their descendants around the world * Japanese citizens, nationals of Japan under Japanese nationality law ** Foreign-born Japanese, naturalized citizens of Japan * Japanese writing system, consisting of kanji and kana * Japanese cuisine, the food and food culture of Japan See also * List of Japanese people * * Japonica (other) * Japonicum * Japonicus * Japanese studies Japanese studies ( Japanese: ) or Japan studies (sometimes Japanology in Europe), is a sub-field of area studies or East Asian studies involved in social sciences and humanities research on Japan. It incorporates fields such as the study of Japan ... {{disambiguation Language and nationality disambiguation pages ...
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