; (March 31, 1925 – January 27, 2023) was a Japanese

historical fiction Historical fiction is a literary genre in which the plot takes place in a setting related to the past events, but is fictional. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literature, it can also be applied to other ty ...

writer. Her real name is .

Biography

Born on March 31, 1925, in the Hongō ward of

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 ...

to and singer , Nagai graduated from the Tokyo Women's University with a degree in

Japanese literature Japanese literature throughout most of its history has been influenced by cultural contact with neighboring Asian literatures, most notably China and its literature. Early texts were often written in pure Classical Chinese or , a Chinese-Japanes ...

in 1944. She also studied economic history at the

University of Tokyo , abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project by ...

from 1947 to 1948. After her marriage to Nobuo Kuroita, the son of historian Kuroita Katsumi, she went to work as an editor for the publishing company

Shogakukan is a Japanese publisher of dictionaries, literature, comics (manga), non-fiction, DVDs, and other media in Japan. Shogakukan founded Shueisha, which also founded Hakusensha. These are three separate companies, but are together called the Hit ...

. Still, she began to write her own stories with historical settings on the side. In 1952, she submitted her debut work, ''Sanjoin ki'' ("History of Lady Sanjo"), to the ''Sunday Mainichi'', where it was awarded second place in that publication's 30th anniversary commemorative edition. This encouraged her to pursue a career in literature full-time, winning the prestigious

Naoki Award 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 ...

in 1964, the 21st Women's Culture Award in 1982, the 32nd

Kikuchi Kan Prize The honors achievement in all aspects of Japanese literary culture. It was named in honor of Kikuchi Kan. The prize is presented annually by the literary magazine ''Bungei Shunjū'' and the Society for the Promotion of Japanese Literature. Histor ...

in 1984, and the Yoshikawa Eiji Literary Award. Nagai was noted for

historical novel Historical fiction is a literary genre in which the plot takes place in a setting related to the past events, but is fictional. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literature, it can also be applied to other ty ...

s reassessing the role of women in

Japanese history The first human inhabitants of the Japanese archipelago have been traced to prehistoric times around 30,000 BC. The Jōmon period, named after its cord-marked pottery, was followed by the Yayoi period in the first millennium BC when new invent ...

, deviating from the traditional narrative. She has been praised for combining historical accuracy with translating her character's emotions into modern terms. In ''Hōjō Masako'', she countered the popular image of

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 ...

's jealous, power-grasping wife

Hōjō Masako was a Japanese politician who exercised significant power in the early years of the Kamakura period, which was reflected by her contemporary sobriquet of the "nun shogun". She was the wife of Minamoto no Yoritomo, and mother of Minamoto no Yorii ...

(1157–1225) with a more human, sympathetic personality. Her novel was the basis for a yearlong

television drama In film and television show, television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or docudrama, semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humour, humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms t ...

on the Japanese government

television network A television network or television broadcaster is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, where a central operation provides programming to many television stations or multichannel video programming distributo ...

NHK , also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee. NHK operates two terrestr ...

in 1979. Likewise, in ''Gin no yakata'' ("Silver Mansion," 1980), she rehabilitated the image of

Hino Tomiko was a prominent figure during the Muromachi period and the beginning of the Sengoku period. She was daughter to Hino Shigemasa and was the official wife of Ashikaga Yoshimasa, the eighth ''shōgun'' of the Ashikaga shogunate (at first Tomiko wa ...

(1440–1496), wife of the ineffectual ''

shōgun , officially , was the title of the military dictators of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, though during part of the Kamakur ...

Ashikaga Yoshimasa Ashikaga (足利) may refer to: * Ashikaga clan (足利氏 ''Ashikaga-shi''), a Japanese samurai clan descended from the Minamoto clan; and that formed the basis of the eponymous shogunate ** Ashikaga shogunate (足利幕府 ''Ashikaga bakufu''), a ...

. Historically scorned as an "evil money-grubbing woman" who dragged the country into war, Nagai's portrayal is of a woman who is the savior of the government and skilled at finance and politics. However, her writing was not entirely on the role of women. In 1997, NHK aired a year-long historical drama in 50 episodes,

Mōri Motonari was a prominent ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) in the western Chūgoku region of Japan during the Sengoku period of the 16th century. The Mōri clan claimed descent from Ōe no Hiromoto (大江広元), an adviser to Minamoto no Yoritomo. Motonari w ...

, on the life of the Sengoku-period ''

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast, hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and n ...

'', based on Nagai's book of the same name. Nagai died on January 27, 2023, at the age of 97.「炎環」「北条政子」作家の永井路子さん死去　９７歳

Selected works

* (1964) * (1965) * (1966) * (1967) * (1967 * (1969) * (1969) * (1971) * (1971) * (1971) * (1972) * (1972) * (1972) * (1972) * (1972) * (1972) * (1972) * (1972)

References

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nagai, Michiko 1925 births 2023 deaths 20th-century Japanese novelists 20th-century Japanese women writers 21st-century Japanese novelists 21st-century Japanese women writers Japanese screenwriters Japanese women novelists Tokyo Woman's Christian University alumni Naoki Prize winners Writers from Tokyo

Biography

Selected works

See also

References

Bibliography