was a Japanese writer in the early

Shōwa period Shōwa may refer to: * Hirohito (1901–1989), the 124th Emperor of Japan, known posthumously as Emperor Shōwa * Showa Corporation, a Japanese suspension and shock manufacturer, affiliated with the Honda keiretsu Japanese eras * Jōwa (Heian ...

known for his poetic short stories. Kajii's works included , . and . His poetic works were praised by fellow writers including

Yasunari Kawabata was a Japanese novelist and short story writer whose spare, lyrical, subtly shaded prose works won him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1968, the first Japanese author to receive the award. His works have enjoyed broad international appeal a ...

and

Yukio Mishima , born , was a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor, model, Shintoist, nationalist, and founder of the , an unarmed civilian militia. Mishima is considered one of the most important Japanese authors of the 20th century. He was considered fo ...

. Today his works are admired for their finely tuned self-observation and descriptive power. Despite the limited body of work he created during his short lifetime, Kajii has managed to leave a lasting footprint on Japanese culture. "Lemon" is a staple of literature textbooks. According to a report in major daily newspaper

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 a ...

, many high school students have emulated the protagonist's defiant act of leaving a lemon in the book section of Maruzen, a department store chain." I read an article about Maruzen closing its business in yesterday's Asahi Journal Evening Edition. It claims that many people are leaving lemons in the department store, just like the main character in Motojiro Kajii's short story titled LEMON. Coincidentally, I learned that many people are buying LEMON from the bookstore inside Maruzen. LEMON is featured in school textbooks; there aren't many Japanese who don't know the story. I am fond of the story myself. I learned the name Maruzen for the first time through LEMON. To be perfectly honest... I left a lemon in Maruzen when I was a high school student. My friend did the same. It must have been a nuisance for the people who worked there. " – Hideo Kojima (creator of the

Metal Gear Solid is a series of techno-thriller stealth games created by Hideo Kojima. Developed and published by Konami, the first game, ''Metal Gear'', was released in 1987 for MSX home computers. The player often takes control of a special forces opera ...

video games for

Konami , is a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, it also produces and distributes trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, pachinko machines, slot machines, and arcade cabinets. Konami has casino ...

), in the The opening line of "Under the Cherry Trees" (''Dead bodies are buried under the cherry trees!'') is popularly quoted"Why is the Cherry Blossom (Sakura) cherished?"
in reference to

hanami is the Japanese traditional custom of enjoying the transient beauty of flowers; in this case almost always refer to those of the or, less frequently, trees. From the end of March to early May, cherry trees bloom all over Japan, and around ...

, the Japanese custom of cherry blossom viewing.

Biography

Childhood and education (1901–1924)

Kajii 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 ...

in 1901. He attended primary school in Tokyo from 1910 to 1911, middle school in Toba from 1911 to 1913, and Osaka Prefectural Kitano High School from 1914 to 1919. In September 1919, Kajii entered

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin, Keihanshin metropolitan area along wi ...

's Third Higher School (Kyoto-Sanko, a junior college), where his roommate was

Tadashi Iijima was a Japanese film critic and screenwriter. He has been called "a leader who established film criticism and film research in Japan". Career After graduating from the Tokyo Prefectural First Middle School (now Hibiya High School), he attended t ...

. While a student there in 1920, he was diagnosed with pulmonary

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, i ...

Early literary career (1924–1928)

In 1924, Kajii entered

Tokyo Imperial University , 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 ...

, where he studied English literature. Shortly, he planned for publish a literary coterie magazine , with his friends from high school. In 1925, was published in ''Aozora'' first issue. After relinquished a graduation, Kajii had been stayed in on the Izu Peninsula between 1927 and 1928, hoping to recuperate. During that time, he visited the writer

, whom he befriended. The two writers would play go together(op. cit.) Kajii & Kodama de Larroche, ''Le citron'', p. 13 several times a week. After ''Aozora'' ceased publication in 1927, Kajii's works appeared in , another literary coterie magazine.

Late career and death (1928–1932)

In September 1928, Kajii returned to

, where he spent a period of convalescence at home. Sensing his impending death, friends including the poet

Tatsuji Miyoshi was a Japanese poet, literary critic, and literary editor active during the Shōwa period of Japan. He is known for his lengthy free verse poetry, which often portray loneliness and isolation as part of contemporary life, but which are written ...

and Ryūzō Yodono decided to publish his first book, a collection of his short stories titled ''Lemon'' in 1931. In 1932, he wrote his first novella, titled . Its publication in '' Chūōkōron'', which had commissioned the work, was Kajii's first in the commercial magazine. On March 24, 1932, Kajii died of tuberculosis at age 31.

Bibliography

Works available in English translation

Monographs * ''The Youth of Things: Life and Death in the Age of Kajii Motojiro'' (2014) - ed. Stephen Dodd () * ''Lemon'' (2009) - trans. Chinatsu Komori and Kenneth Traynor () Anthologies * "Mating" in ''The Shōwa Anthology'' (1984) - eds. Van C. Gessel and Tomone Matsumoto () * "Lemon" in ''The Oxford Book of Japanese Short Stories'' (1997) - ed. Theodore W. Goossen () * "Mire" in ''Tokyo Stories: A Literary Stroll'' (2002) - ed. Lawrence Rogers () * "Lemon" in ''The Columbia Anthology of Modern Japanese Literature, Vol. 1'' (2005) - eds. J. Thomas Rimer and Van C. Gessel () * "The Lemon," "The Ascension of K, or His Death by Drowning," and "Feelings Atop a Cliff" in ''Modanizumu; Modernist Fiction from Japan, 1913-1938'' - ed. William Jefferson Tyler () * "Scenes of the Mind" in ''Three-Dimensional Reading: Stories of Time and Space in Japanese Modernist Fiction, 1911-1932'' - ed. Angela Yiu () Literary magazines * "Beneath the Cherry Trees" tr.

John Bester John Bester (1927-2010), born and educated in England, was one of the foremost translators of modern Japanese fiction. He was a graduate of the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies. Works * ''Classic Bonsai of Japan'' (Ne ...

in ''The Japan P.E.N. News'' (1964) * "A Musical Derangement" tr. Stephen Wechselblatt in ''New Orleans Review'' (1983) * "The Ascension/Drowning of K" and "Lemon" with introduction "Translating Kajii Motojiro" tr.

Alfred Birnbaum Alfred Birnbaum (born 1955)Our Authors: Alfred Birnbaum

in ''

The Literary Review ''The Literary Review'' is an American literary magazine founded in 1957. The biannual magazine is published internationally by Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison, New Jersey. In addition to the publication of short stories, poems, an ...

'' (1996) * "Under the Cherry Blossoms" tr. Bonnie Huie in ''The

Brooklyn Rail ''The Brooklyn Rail'' is a publication and platform for the arts, culture, humanities, and politics. The ''Rail'' is based out of Brooklyn, New York. It features in-depth critical essays, fiction, poetry, as well as interviews with artists, criti ...

'' (2014) Scholarly works * ''Kajii Motojiro: An Anthology of Short Stories Translated into English'' (1977) * ''Three Stories of Kajii Motojiro: A Study and Translation'' (1978) * ''The Private World of Kajii Motojiro'' (1982) * ''The Translator as Reader and Writer: English Versions of Japanese Short Fiction by Kajii Motojiro'' (1982) Miscellaneous amateur translations on Internet (see external links below). Translations into other languages * French: ''Le citron'' (1987, 1996) – partial translation of ''Remon'' (stories #1,8,9,10,11,13,16,18) * Russian: ''Limon'' (2004) – full translation of ''Remon'' (stories #1–18)

List of works in original Japanese

Stories in magazines # - May 1923 # - July 1923 # – January 1925 # - February 1925 # - July 1925 # - October 1925 # - November 1925 # - January 1926 # - June 1926 # - July 1926 # - August 1926 # - October 1926 # - February, April 1927 # - March 1928 # – April 1928 # – May 1928 # – May 1928 # – July 1928 # – December 1928 # – June 1930 # – September 1930 # – January 1931 # – January 1932, novella (Unpublished or unfinished works included in ''Complete Works'' are not listed above.) Books * – May 1931, collection (stories #1–18) *: ''-- posthumously --'' * – 1934 (ed. Takao Nakatani, Ryūzō Yodono) Rokuhō Shoin * – 1947 (ed. Ryūzō Yodono) Kyoto: Kōtō Shoin * – 1948 (ed. Ryūzō Yodono) Kyoto: Kōtō Shoin * – 1955, selected correspondence. 1955 (ed. Ryūzō Yodono) Kadokawa Shoten * – 1959 (ed. Ryūzō Yodono, Takao Nakatani) Tokyo: Chikuma Shobō. Reprinted in 1966. * – 1999-2000 (ed. Sadami Suzuki) Tokyo: Chikuma Shobō

References

Sources consulted * Kajii, Motojiro (stories); Kodoma de Larroche, Christine (translation, introduction). 1996. ''Le citron : nouvelles'' (second partial French translation of ''Remon''). Picquier poche. Arles, France: P. Picquier. : pp. 7–22 (short biography). [First printed as: Kajii, Motojiro (stories); Kodoma de Larroche, Christine (translation, introduction). 1987. ''Les cercles d'un regard : le monde de Kajii Motojirô'' (first partial French translation of ''Remon''). Bibliothèque de l'Institut des hautes études japonaises. Paris, France: Maisonneuve et Larose. .] * Matsuoka, Tatsuya. 2005. "An Encounter with Kajii Motojiro" (English version of hi
Japanese notice
. JLLP (Japanese Literature Publishing Project). Tokyo, Japan: Japanese Literature Publishing and Promotion Center (Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan). Internet page

at

WebCite WebCite was an on-demand archive site, designed to digitally preserve scientific and educationally important material on the web by taking snapshots of Internet contents as they existed at the time when a blogger or a scholar cited or quoted ...

). Endnotes

'' Reviews
A short English review of the French partial edition of ''Remon''
in ''Bohème Magazine'' (July 2004) {{DEFAULTSORT:Kajii, Motojiro Japanese male short story writers Writers from Osaka Kyoto University alumni University of Tokyo alumni 20th-century deaths from tuberculosis 1901 births 1932 deaths Tuberculosis deaths in Japan