is a Japanese

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...

in Shōwa and

Heisei period The is the period of Japanese history corresponding to the reign of Emperor Emeritus Akihito from 8 January 1989 until his abdication on 30 April 2019. The Heisei era started on 8 January 1989, the day after the death of the Emperor Hirohito, ...

Japan. Anzai has concentrated her efforts on stories set in China with historical themes, or on contemporary stories based on traditional Chinese motifs.

Biography

Anzai was born on August 11, 1927, in

Kobe Kobe ( , ; officially , ) is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture Japan. With a population around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Tokyo and Yokohama. It is located in Kansai region, whic ...

Hyōgo Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Hyōgo Prefecture has a population of 5,469,762 () and has a geographic area of . Hyōgo Prefecture borders Kyoto Prefecture to the east, Osaka Prefecture to the southeast, an ...

, where her father was a banker. She accompanied her father when he was assigned to Germany from 1927 to 1932, and to

Qingdao Qingdao (, also spelled Tsingtao; , Mandarin: ) is a major city in eastern Shandong Province. The city's name in Chinese characters literally means " azure island". Located on China's Yellow Sea coast, it is a major nodal city of the One Belt ...

and

Tianjin Tianjin (; ; Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Tientsin (), is a municipality and a coastal metropolis in Northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the nine national central cities in Mainland China, with a total popul ...

in China from 1932 to 1942, where she was exposed to folk tales and literature from both European and Asian traditions. She attended the Qingtao Girls Middle School from 1940 to 1942, where her interest in writing was encouraged by her father. As the situation for Japan in World War II worsened, she was sent from China to Japan, where she graduated from the Kanagawa Daiichi Girls Middle School in

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of To ...

Kanagawa Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-densest at . Its geographic area of makes it fifth-smallest. Kana ...

in 1944. Anzai married Satoru Tominaka, a businessman, in 1946. She turned to

literature Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...

after she married; the noted author

Nakayama Gishu Nakayama (中山) may refer to: People *Nakayama (surname) Places *Nakayama, Ehime, a town in Ehime Prefecture *Nakayama, Tottori, a town in Tottori Prefecture *Nakayama, Yamagata, a town in Yamagata Prefecture *Nakayama-dera, a temple in Hyōgo ...

agreed to take her on as a student in 1953. She formed a

literary criticism Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...

group called ''Namboku'' ("North-South") in 1953, where authors could support each other as well as review each other's work. In 1964, her short story ''Chanshaoshu no hanashi'' was awarded the prestigious

Naoki Prize The Naoki Prize, officially , is a Japanese literary award presented biannually. It was created in 1935 by Kikuchi Kan, then editor of the ''Bungeishunjū'' magazine, and named in memory of novelist Naoki Sanjugo. Sponsored by the Society for the ...

. As with many of her works, the story is set in ancient China and is based on an old Chinese legend. Anzai divorced in 1972. She later worked as a free-lance interviewer and writer. In 1993, her novel ''Kurouma'' was awarded the Japan Women Writer's Award. She currently resides in Kamakura, Kanagawa.

References

*Schierbeck, Sachiko Shibata and Edelstein Marlene R. ''Japanese Women Novelists in the 20th Century: 104 Biographies, 1900-1993''. Museum Tusculanum Press (1994), {{DEFAULTSORT:Anzai, Atsuko 1927 births 20th-century Japanese novelists 21st-century Japanese novelists Japanese women novelists Writers from Kobe Living people 21st-century Japanese women writers 21st-century Japanese writers 20th-century Japanese women writers