was a Japanese writer and translator of English and Russian literature. She was a recipient of the Women's Literature Prize, the

Yomiuri Prize The is a literary award in Japan. The prize was founded in 1949 by the Yomiuri Shinbun Company to help form a "strong cultural nation". The winner is awarded two million Japanese yen and an inkstone. Award categories For the first two years, ...

, and Japan Academy of the Arts prize.

Biography

Amino was born in Azabu Mamiana-cho and raised in Akasaka,

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

, where her father was a well-to-do sadler. Her mother left when Amino was six, after which she had three stepmothers. She graduated from the

Japan Women's University is the oldest and largest of private Japanese women's universities. The university was established on 20 April 1901 by education reformist . The university has around 6000 students and 200 faculty. It has two campuses, named after the neighb ...

in 1920 with a degree in English, then worked as a part-time assistant editor at a magazine, and from 1921-1926 a substitute English teacher at the university. In 1921 she published a self-financed collection of stories entitled ''Aki'' (Autumn), and in 1923 met author

Shiga Naoya was a Japanese writer active during the Taishō and Shōwa periods of Japan, whose work was distinguished by its lucid, straightforward style and strong autobiographical overtones. Early life Shiga was born in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, ...

whose disciple she became. She married in 1930, living in Hooten,

Manchuria Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer M ...

, from 1930–1938, but divorced in 1936. She did not publish while married, but made a comeback with a collection of short stories called ''Kisha no nakade'' (On the Train) in 1940. She was a member of the Japan Art Academy and received the 1947 Women's Literature Prize for ''Kin no kan'' (A Golden Coffin), and the 1967

and Japan Academy of the Arts prize for her short story ''Ichigo ichie'' (Once in a Lifetime). She is buried in Aoyama Reien, 2-32-2 Minami Aoyama, where Shiga Naoya is also buried.

References

Sources

* Donald Keene, ''Dawn to the West: Japanese literature of the modern era, fiction'', Volume 1, 2nd edition, Columbia University Press, 1998, pages 528–531. . * Japanese Wikipedia article
Prominent People of Minato City (with photo)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Amino Kiku Japanese writers 1900 births 1978 deaths Yomiuri Prize winners Burials in Japan