was the pen-name of a Japanese writer. Her real name was Hirabayashi Tai.

Biography

Hirabayashi resolved at the age of 12 to become a writer and also developed an interest in

socialism Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

at a young age. After graduating from the Suwa Women’s Higher School in 1922, 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 ...

and began living with an anarchist named Torazo Yamamoto. They went to

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...

together but returned after only one month. They were both arrested in the confusion and clampdowns following the

1923 Great Kantō earthquake The struck the Kantō Plain on the main Japanese island of Honshū at 11:58:44 JST (02:58:44 UTC) on Saturday, September 1, 1923. Varied accounts indicate the duration of the earthquake was between four and ten minutes. Extensive firestorms an ...

and released on condition of leaving Tokyo. She eventually moved to Manchuria and was to give birth in a hospital in Dalian but the child lived for only twenty-four days, dying of malnutrition. Based on this personal experience, she wrote the short story ''In the Charity Hospital'', which established her as a writer of

proletarian literature Proletarian literature refers here to the literature created by left-wing writers mainly for the class-conscious proletariat. Though the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' states that because it "is essentially an intended device of revolution", it is ...

. She married the novelist and critic in 1927, but divorced him in 1955 after discovering that he had an illegitimate child. In 1946, she won the inaugural with ''Kou iu onna''. After the war, she became a writer of "Tenko Bungaku" ("Conversion Literature", a controversial genre dealing with the renunciation of leftist beliefs) and showed conservative, anti-communist tendencies. Later, she was known to be a member of the Democratic Socialist Party. Her writings were often modelled on her own life or contemporary authors but she also produced various social commentaries and essays. During the war, after receiving help from a gambler named Seiichi Ishiguro, she became interested in the world of the yakuza and also wrote novels with a chivalrous spirit such as ''Kokusatsu'', ''Chitei no Uta'' and ''Nagurareru Aitsu''. In 1967, she won the 7th Women's Literature Prize with ''Himitsu''.

Legacy

She was posthumously awarded the and the ''Hirabayashi Taiko Prize'' was created in her honour. There is a Hirabayashi Taiko Memorial Museum in Suwa City,

Fukushima prefecture Fukushima Prefecture (; ja, 福島県, Fukushima-ken, ) is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. Fukushima Prefecture has a population of 1,810,286 () and has a geographic area of . Fukushima Prefecture borders Miya ...

Literary works

* ''Azakeru'' (嘲る, 1927) - ''Self-Mockery'' * ''Seryoushitsu ni te'' (施療室にて, 1928) - ''In the Charity Hospital'' * ''Shussen ni te'' (1946) - ''Diary of the End of the War'' * ''Hitori yuku'' (一人行く, 1946) - ''I Walk Alone'' * ''Mou chugoku hei'' (1946) - ''Blind Chinese Soldiers'' * ''Kishi mojin'' (1946) - ''The Goddess of Children'' or ''Demon Goddess'' * ''Kau iu onna'' (かういふ女, 1946) - ''This Kind of Woman'' * ''Watashi ha ikiru'' (私は生きる, 1947) - ''I Mean to Live'' * ''Kokusatsu'' (黒札) - ''Black Notes'' * ''Chitei no uta'' (地底の歌, 1948) - ''Song from the Underworld'' * ''Jinsei jikken'' (1948) - ''A Life Experiment'' * ''Hito no inochi'' (1950) - ''A Man's Life'' * ''Nagurareru aitsu'' (殴られるあいつ) - ''The Beaten Man'' * ''Onigo bojin'' (鬼子母神) - * ''Sabaku no hana'' (砂漠の花, 1957) - ''Flowers in a Desert'' * ''Sono hito to tsuma'' (その人と妻) - ''The Man and His Wife'' * ''Erudorado Akarushi'' (エルドラド明るし) * ''Fumou'' (1962) - ''Sterility'' * ''Kuroi Nenrei'' (1963) - ''The Black Age'' * ''Haha to iu onna'' (1966) - ''A Woman to Call Mother'' * ''Himitsu'' (秘密, 1967) - ''Secret'' -- won the Women's Literature Prize in 1968.

Biography

Legacy

Literary works

See also

References

Further reading