Kōno Taeko (河野多惠子, February 24, 1926 – January 29, 2015) was a Japanese writer who was active during the latter half of the 20th century. Kōno belonged to a generation of female Japanese writers who became more well-known in the 1960s and 70s. She established a reputation for herself as an acerbic essayist, a playwright, and a
literary critic
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 ...
.
By the end of her life, she played a role in Japan's literary establishment and one of the first female writers to serve on the Akutagawa Literary Prize committee.
Kenzaburō Ōe
is a Japanese writer and a major figure in contemporary Japanese literature. His novels, short stories and essays, strongly influenced by French and American literature and literary theory, deal with political, social and philosophical issues, i ...
, Japan's Nobel Laureate, described her as one of the most lucidly intelligent female writers in Japan, and the US critic and academic
Masao Miyoshi
was a scholar of literature and culture and Hajime Mori Endowed Chair in Japanese Language and Literature at the University of California, San Diego.
Career
Born in Tokyo, he graduated from the University of Tokyo, majoring in English, and earne ...
identified her as among the most "critically alert and historically intelligent". US critic and academic Davinder Bhowmik described her as one of the truly original voices of the twentieth century, beyond questions of gender or even nationality. A writer who deals with dark themes, Kōno is known to many English speaking readers because of her collection of short stories ''Toddler-Hunting and Other Stories'' (New Directions, 1996).
Biography
Kōno Taeko was born in
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. ...
, Japan to Kōno Tameji and Yone; her father Tameji operated a business specializing in mountain produce."Kōno Taeko", ''This Kind of Woman: Ten Stories by Japanese Women Writers, 1960–1976'', edited and translated by Yukiko Tanaka and Elizabeth Hanson (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1982), p. 44. As a child, she suffered from poor health. When she was 15, 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 ...
broke out and her teenage years were dominated by service as a student worker sewing military uniforms and working in a munitions factory."Kono Taeko", ''The Columbia Anthology of Modern Japanese Literature: From 1945 to the present'', eds.
J. Thomas Rimer
J. Thomas Rimer (born 2 March 1933) is an American scholar of Japanese literature and drama. He is a Professor Emeritus of Japanese Literature,
Theatre, and Art at the University of Pittsburgh. He has served as the chief of the Asian Division of th ...
, Van C. Gessel (New York: Columbia University Press, 2007), p. 190.
After the war, she finished her economics degree at Women's University (currently
Osaka Prefecture University
(OPU), also abbreviated to , is one of the largest public universities in Japan. The main campus is among big Kofun tombs in Sakai, Osaka.
The university will merge with Osaka City University to form Osaka Metropolitan University (OMU) in A ...
), graduating in 1947.KKo, "Kōno Taeko", ''Who's Who in Contemporary Women's Writing'', 2nd ed. (New York: Routledge, 2002), p. 175. Kōno has written about the new sense of freedom and the high hopes she had after the war. Determined to make a career for herself as a writer, she moved to
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 ...
, a city full of literary activities and literary personae, joined a literary group led by
Fumio Niwa
was a Japanese novelist with a long list of works, the most famous in the West being his novel ''The Buddha Tree'' (Japanese ''Bodaiju'', "The Linden", or "The Bodhi Tree", 1956).
He was ordained as a Shin Buddhist priest in his youth, but aba ...
, and threw herself into writing while working full-time.
After nearly a decade of trying to get published, during which she suffered several setbacks in her health including two bouts of
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...
, the literary magazine ''
Shinchōsha
is a publisher founded in 1896 in Japan and headquartered in Yaraichō, Shinjuku, Tokyo. Shinchosha is one of the sponsors of the Japan Fantasy Novel Award.
Books
* Haruki Murakami: '' Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World'' (198 ...
'' began publishing her stories in 1961. In 1962, she was awarded ''Shinchōshas "Dōjin zasshi" ("Coterie Magazine") award for her story "Yōji-gari" ("Toddler Hunting" 児狩り. In 1963 her short story "Kani" (Crabs) (蟹) won the prestigious
Akutagawa Prize
The is a Japanese literary award presented biannually. Because of its prestige and the considerable attention the winner receives from the media, it is, along with the Naoki Prize, one of Japan's most sought after literary prizes.
History
The ...
(her story "Yuki"
now
Now most commonly refers
to the present time.
Now, NOW, or The Now may also refer to:
Organizations
* Natal Organisation of Women, a South African women's organization
* National Organization for Women, an American feminist organization
* Now ...
had been nominated in 1962). After this, Kōno began to produce a stream of remarkable short fiction. In 1965 she married the painter Yasushi Ichikawa. In 1967 she was awarded the Women's Literary Prize for ''Saigo no toki (Final Moments)'', in 1968 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, a ...
for ''A Sudden Voice'' (不意の声), and in 1980 she won the Tanizaki Prize for "A Year-long Pastoral" (一年の牧歌). She received a prize from the Japanese Art Academy in 1984 and the
Noma Literary Prize
The Noma Literary Prize (''Noma Bungei Shō'') was established in 1941 by the Noma Service Association (''Noma Hōkō Kai'') in accordance with the last wishes of Seiji Noma (1878–1938), founder and first president of the Kodansha publishing co ...
in 1991 for her novel ''Miira-tori ryōkitan'' (''Mummy-Hunting for the Bizarre'', 1990). Kōno's short story "Hone no niku" (Bone Meat) was published in the 1977 anthology ''Contemporary Japanese Literature'' (ed.
Howard Hibbett
Howard Hibbett (July 27, 1920 – March 13, 2019) was a translator and professor of Japanese literature at Harvard University. He held the Victor S. Thomas Professorship in Japanese Literature.
Early life
Hibbett was born in Akron, Ohio, on Jul ...
), which stimulated interest in her writing among readers in English. A trickle of translations into English followed in a variety of anthologies of Japanese women's writing in translation, culminating in the publication of ''Toddler-Hunting and Other Stories'' in 1996. Kōno continued to write all her life, and was still writing when she died in hospital in January 2015. In 2014 she was awarded a Bunka Kunshō, or Order of Culture, which is presented by the
Emperor
An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...
to distinguished artists, scholars, or citizens who make remarkable contributions to Japanese culture, arts and science.
Literary analysis
Kōno's writing explores how "underneath the seemingly normal routines of daily life, one may find hidden propensities for abnormal or pathological behavior," demonstrating that often "reality and fantasy are not so clearly distinguishable from each other." Alternative sexual practices is a theme that permeates Kōno's writing.
Sadomasochism
Sadomasochism ( ) is the giving and receiving of pleasure from acts involving the receipt or infliction of pain or humiliation. Practitioners of sadomasochism may seek sexual pleasure from their acts. While the terms sadist and masochist refer ...
, for example, figures in "Toddler-Hunting," "Ants Swarm" (1964), and her novel ''Miira-tori ryōkitan.'' ''Kaiten tobira'' (''Revolving Door'', 1970) features spouse-swapping. Kōno uses these themes to explore sexuality itself and the expression of identity. She combines these elements with illness, childlessness, and the absence of a husband to delve even more deeply into these topics.Mark Morris, "Japan", ''The Oxford Guide to Contemporary World Literature'', ed. John Sturrock (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), p. 281.
More specifically, her writings explore "the struggles of Japanese women to come to terms with their identity in a traditional patriarchal society.""Taeko Kono", ''Contemporary Authors Online'',
Gale
A gale is a strong wind; the word is typically used as a descriptor in nautical contexts. The U.S. National Weather Service defines a gale as sustained surface winds moving at a speed of between 34 and 47 knots (, or ). For example, in "Yōjigari," or "Toddler Hunting," one of her most famous stories, she investigates one woman's dislike of children. The protagonist, Akiko Hayashi, is repulsed by little girls but obsessed by little boys: she even imagines a little boy being beaten by his father to the extent that his innards spill out. She also takes pleasure in the sadomasochistic sex she has with her adult partner. One critic has written that the story "turn the myth of motherhood on its head" while another argued that Hayashi was a representation of demonic women who threatened patriarchy itself. In ''Fui no koe'' (1968), which one critic has called a "modern woman's ''Hamlet''," Kōno presents the story of Ukiko, whose dead father haunts her. His ghost instructs her to murder the people who are controlling her life. At the end of the story, it is revealed that all of these incidents are only taking place within her mind and she is "trying in her twisted way to bring meaning to her everyday relationships."
Selected list of works
Notes
English translations
*Kōno, Taeko. ''Toddler-hunting & Other Stories''. Trans. Lucy North. New York: New Directions, 1996. .