Eiji Yoshikawa
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was a Japanese historical novelist. Among his best-known novels are revisions of older classics. He was mainly influenced by classics such as ''
The Tale of the Heike is an epic poetry, epic account compiled prior to 1330 of the struggle between the Taira clan and Minamoto clan for control of Japan at the end of the 12th century in the Genpei War (1180–1185). Heike () refers to the Taira (), ''hei'' being ...
'', ''
Tale of Genji Tale may refer to: * Narrative, or story, a report of real or imaginary connected events * TAL effector (TALE), a type of DNA binding protein * Tale, Albania, a resort town * Tale, Iran, a village * Tale, Maharashtra, a village in Ratnagiri distri ...
'', ''
Water Margin ''Water Margin'' (''Shuihu zhuan'') is one of the earliest Chinese novels written in vernacular Mandarin, and is attributed to Shi Nai'an. It is also translated as ''Outlaws of the Marsh'' and ''All Men Are Brothers''. The story, which is s ...
'' and ''
Romance of the Three Kingdoms ''Romance of the Three Kingdoms'' () is a 14th-century historical novel attributed to Luo Guanzhong. It is set in the turbulent years towards the end of the Han dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period in Chinese history, starting in 184 AD and ...
'', many of which he retold in his own style. As an example, Yoshikawa took up ''Taiko'''s original manuscript in 15 volumes to retell it in a more accessible tone and reduce it to only two volumes. His other books also serve similar purposes and, although most of his novels are not original works, he created a huge amount of work and a renewed interest in the past. He was awarded the Cultural Order of Merit in 1960 (the highest award for a man of letters in Japan), the
Order of the Sacred Treasure The is a Japanese order, established on 4 January 1888 by Emperor Meiji as the Order of Meiji. Originally awarded in eight classes (from 8th to 1st, in ascending order of importance), since 2003 it has been awarded in six classes, the lowest ...
and the
Mainichi The is one of the major newspapers in Japan, published by In addition to the ''Mainichi Shimbun'', which is printed twice a day in several local editions, Mainichi also operates an English language news website called ''The Mainichi'' (prev ...
Art Award just before his death from cancer in 1962. He is cited as one of the best historical novelists in Japan. The complete translation of his "Miyamoto Musashi", in the west, is only available in Portuguese


Life

He was born in
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 what is now a part of
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 ...
. Because of his father's failed business, he had to drop out of primary school to work. When he was 18, after a near-fatal accident working at the Yokohama docks, he moved to Tokyo and became an apprentice in a gold
lacquer Lacquer is a type of hard and usually shiny coating or finish applied to materials such as wood or metal. It is most often made from resin extracted from trees and waxes and has been in use since antiquity. Asian lacquerware, which may be ca ...
workshop. Around this time he became interested in comic
haiku is a type of short form poetry originally from Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases that contain a ''kireji'', or "cutting word", 17 '' on'' (phonetic units similar to syllables) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern, and a ''kigo'', or se ...
. He joined a poetry society and started writing comic haiku under the pseudonym "Kijiro". In 1914, with ''The Tale of
Enoshima is a small offshore island, about in circumference, at the mouth of the Katase River which flows into the Sagami Bay of Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. Administratively, Enoshima is part of the mainland city of Fujisawa, and is linked to ...
'', he won first prize in a novel-writing contest sponsored by the publisher
Kodansha is a Japanese privately-held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha is the largest Japanese publishing company, and it produces the manga magazines ''Nakayoshi'', ''Afternoon'', ''Evening'', ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' an ...
. He joined the newspaper ''Maiyu Shimbun'' in 1921, and in the following year he began publishing serializations, starting with ''Life of
Shinran ''Popular Buddhism in Japan: Shin Buddhist Religion & Culture'' by Esben Andreasen, pp. 13, 14, 15, 17. University of Hawaii Press 1998, was a Japanese Buddhist monk, who was born in Hino (now a part of Fushimi, Kyoto) at the turbulent close of ...
''. He married Yasu Akazawa in 1923, the year of the
Great Kantō earthquake Great may refer to: Descriptions or measurements * Great, a relative measurement in physical space, see Size * Greatness, being divine, majestic, superior, majestic, or transcendent People * List of people known as "the Great" *Artel Great (born ...
. His experiences in the earthquake strengthened his resolve to make writing his career. In the following years he published stories in various periodicals published by Kodansha, who recognized him as their number one author. He used 19 pen names before settling on Eiji Yoshikawa. He first used this pen name with the serialization of ''Sword Trouble, Woman Trouble''. His name became a household word after ''Secret Record of Naruto'' was serialized in the ''
Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2. ...
Mainichi Shimbun The is one of the major newspapers in Japan, published by In addition to the ''Mainichi Shimbun'', which is printed twice a day in several local editions, Mainichi also operates an English language news website called ''The Mainichi'' (previ ...
''; from then on his writing became much more popular. In the early 1930s, his writing became introspective, reflecting growing troubles in his personal life. But in 1935, with the serialization of '' Musashi'', about famed swordsman
Miyamoto Musashi , also known as Shinmen Takezō, Miyamoto Bennosuke or, by his Buddhist name, Niten Dōraku, was a Japanese swordsman, philosopher, strategist, writer and rōnin, who became renowned through stories of his unique double-bladed swordsmanship a ...
, in the ''
Asahi Shimbun is one of the four largest newspapers in Japan. Founded in 1879, it is also one of the oldest newspapers in Japan and Asia, and is considered a newspaper of record for Japan. Its circulation, which was 4.57 million for its morning edition and ...
'', his writing settled firmly into the genre of historical adventure fiction. Upon the outbreak of war with China in 1937 the ''Asahi Shimbun'' sent him into the field as a special correspondent. At this time he divorced Yasu Akazawa and married Fumiko Ikedo. During the war he continued writing novels, and became more influenced by Chinese culture. Among the works of this period are ''
Taiko are a broad range of Japanese percussion instruments. In Japanese, the term refers to any kind of drum, but outside Japan, it is used specifically to refer to any of the various Japanese drums called and to the form of ensemble drumming m ...
'' and his re-telling of the ''
Romance of the Three Kingdoms ''Romance of the Three Kingdoms'' () is a 14th-century historical novel attributed to Luo Guanzhong. It is set in the turbulent years towards the end of the Han dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period in Chinese history, starting in 184 AD and ...
''. At the end of the war he stopped writing for a while and settled down to enjoy a quiet retirement in Yoshino (present-day Oumeshi) on the outskirts of Tokyo, but by 1947 he had started writing again. His post-war works include ''New Tale of the Heike'', published in the ''Asahi Weekly'' (1950), and ''A Private Record of the
Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania. It was geographically the largest theater of the war, including the vast ...
'' (1958). On September 7, 1962, he died from cancer-related complications.


English translations

Four of his books have been translated into English. They are:


''Miyamoto Musashi'', translated as ''Musashi''

Translated by Charles S. Terry *(1981) ''Musashi''. New York:
HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Cor ...
. (cloth) *(1989) ''Musashi Book I: The Way of the Samurai''. New York:
Pocket Books Pocket Books is a division of Simon & Schuster that primarily publishes paperback books. History Pocket Books produced the first mass-market, pocket-sized paperback books in the United States in early 1939 and revolutionized the publishing in ...
. (paper) *(1989) ''Musashi Book II: The Art of War''. New York: Pocket Books (paper) *(1989) ''Musashi Book III: The Way of the Sword''. New York: Pocket Books. (paper) *(1989) ''Musashi Book IV: The Bushido Code''. New York: Pocket Books. (paper) *(1989) ''Musashi Book V: The Way of Life and Death''. New York: Pocket Books. (paper) *(1995) ''Musashi''. Tokyo:
Kodansha International is a Japanese privately-held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha is the largest Japanese publishing company, and it produces the manga magazines ''Nakayoshi'', ''Afternoon'', ''Evening'', ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' an ...
. (cloth)


''Taiko ki'', translated as ''Taiko: An Epic Novel of War and Glory in Feudal Japan''

Translated by
William Scott Wilson William Scott Wilson (born 1944, Nashville, Tennessee) is known for translating several works of Japanese literature, mostly those relating to the martial tradition of that country. Wilson has brought historical Chinese and Japanese thought, ph ...
*(1992) ''Taiko: An Epic Novel of War and Glory in Feudal Japan''. Tokyo: Kodansha. (cloth) *(2000) ''Taiko: An Epic Novel of War and Glory in Feudal Japan''. Tokyo: Kodansha. (cloth)


''Shin Heike monogatari'', translated as ''The Heike Story: A Modern Translation of the Classic Tale of Love and War''

Translated by Fuki Wooyenaka Uramatsu *(1956) ''The Heike Story: A Modern Translation of the Classic Tale of Love and War''. New York:
Alfred A. Knopf Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. () is an American publishing house that was founded by Alfred A. Knopf Sr. and Blanche Knopf in 1915. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, and Latin American writers in ...
. ASIN B0007BR0W8 (cloth) *(1981) ''The Heike Story: A Modern Translation of the Classic Tale of Love and War''. Tokyo:
Tuttle Publishing Tuttle Publishing, originally the Charles E. Tuttle Company, is a book publishing company that includes Tuttle, Periplus Editions, and Journey Editions.
. (paper) *(2002) ''The Heike Story: A Modern Translation of the Classic Tale of Love and War''. Tokyo: Tuttle Publishing. (paper)


''Wasurenokori no ki'', translated as ''Fragments of a Past: A Memoir''

Translated by
Edwin McClellan Edwin McClellan (24 October 1925 – 27 April 2009) was a British Japanologist, teacher, writer, translator, and interpreter of Japanese literature and culture. Biography McClellan was born in Kobe, Japan in 1925 to a Japanese mother, Teruko ...
* ; (paper)


Works in print in Japanese

The Japanese publisher Kodansha currently publishes an 80-volume series: ''Yoshikawa Eiji Rekishi Jidai Bunko'' (吉川英治歴史時代文庫), or ''Eiji Yoshikawa's Historical Fiction in Paperback''. Kodansha numbers the series from 1 to 80. * 1 — '' (Kennan Jonan)'' – Sword Trouble, Woman Trouble * 2–4 (in three volumes) – '' (
Naruto Hichō is a series of jidaigeki novels written by Eiji Yoshikawa. The stories were originally serialized as a serial in the Japanese newspaper ''Osaka Mainichishimbun'' , between 1926 and 1927. It has been re-released in book format in 1927 and 1933. Yo ...
)'' – Secret Record of Naruto * 5–7 (in three volumes) – '' (Edo Sangoku-shi)'' – The Three Kingdoms of Edo * 8 – '' (Kankan Mushi wa Utau)'' – "The rustbeater (dockworker that beats rust off steamships, boilers etc) sings" and other stories * 9 – '' (Rougoku no Hanayome)'' – The Jail Bride * 10 – '' (Matsu no Rohachi)'' – Rohachi of the Pines * 11–13 (in three volumes) – '' (Shinran)'' * 14–21 (in eight volumes) – '' (Miyamoto Musashi)'' * 22–32 (in eleven volumes) – '' (Shinsho Taiko ki)'' – paperback Life of the Taiko * 33–40 (in eight volumes) – '' (Sangoku shi)'' – Romance of the Three Kingdoms * 41–42 (in two volumes) – '' (
Minamoto no Yoritomo was the founder and the first shogun of the Kamakura shogunate of Japan, ruling from 1192 until 1199.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Minamoto no Yoriie" in . He was the husband of Hōjō Masako who acted as regent (''shikken'') after his ...
)'' * 43 – '' (
Uesugi Kenshin , later known as was a Japanese ''daimyō''. He was born in Nagao clan, and after adoption into the Uesugi clan, ruled Echigo Province in the Sengoku period of Japan. He was one of the most powerful ''daimyō'' of the Sengoku period. Known a ...
)'' * 44 – '' ( Kuroda Josui)'' * 45 – '' ( Ooka Echizen)'' * 46 – '' (
Taira no Masakado was a Heian period provincial magnate (''gōzoku'') and samurai based in eastern Japan, notable for leading the first recorded uprising against the central government in Kyōto. Early life Masakado was one of the sons of Taira no Yoshimasa ...
)'' * 47–62 (in sixteen volumes) – '' (Shin Heike monogatari)'' – New Tale of the Heike * 63–70 (in eight volumes) – '' (Shihon Taihei ki)'' – Private Record of the Pacific War * 71–74 (in four volumes) – '' (Shin Suikoden)'' – New Tales from the
Water Margin ''Water Margin'' (''Shuihu zhuan'') is one of the earliest Chinese novels written in vernacular Mandarin, and is attributed to Shi Nai'an. It is also translated as ''Outlaws of the Marsh'' and ''All Men Are Brothers''. The story, which is s ...
* 75 – '' (Jirokichi Goshi)'' – "Jirokichi Goshi" and other stories * 76 – '' (Yagyu Tsukikage sho)'' – "The Papers of Yagyu Tsukikage" and other stories * 77 – '' (Wasurenokori no ki)'' – Record of Things Left Unforgotten * 78–80 (in three volumes) – '' (Shinshu Tenma Kyo)''


Notes


References


Yoshikawa Eiji
(2006). In ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Retrieved June 4, 2006.


External links



{{DEFAULTSORT:Yoshikawa, Eiji 1892 births 1962 deaths Japanese historical novelists Writers of historical fiction set in the early modern period Writers of historical fiction set in the Middle Ages People from Yokohama Winner of Kodansha Manga Award (General) Recipients of the Order of Culture Japanese racehorse owners and breeders 20th-century Japanese novelists Deaths from cancer in Japan People related to Jōdo Shinshū