Yoko Mori (森瑤子) (November 4, 1940 July 6, 1993) was a Japanese novelist, essayist, and translator who was known for writing popular romantic fiction. Her real name was Masayo Brackin ( Ito).
Biography
Mori was born Masayo Ito in
Shizuoka
Shizuoka can refer to:
* Shizuoka Prefecture, a Japanese prefecture
* Shizuoka (city), the capital city of Shizuoka Prefecture
* Shizuoka Airport
* Shizuoka Domain, the name from 1868 to 1871 for Sunpu Domain, a predecessor of Shizuoka Prefecture
...
, Japan on November 4, 1940. Shortly after she was born, she and her parents moved to
Inner Mongolia
Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...
. Her father worked there throughout
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
. When the war ended, they returned to Japan and lived in
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, ...
. She studied violin, and enjoyed Western films and novels, especially the works of
Francois Sagan,
who her works were later compared with. She graduated from
Tokyo University of the Arts
or is the most prestigious art school in Japan. Located in Ueno Park, it also has facilities in Toride, Ibaraki, Yokohama, Kanagawa, and Kitasenju and Adachi, Tokyo. The university has trained renowned artists in the fields of painting, scul ...
in 1961. However, instead of becoming a professional violinist, she ended up working for an advertising firm. She married an Englishman named Ivan Brackin in 1964 and raised three children with him.
Mori began writing in 1978. Her first story, Joji (情事), won the Subaru Literary Award.
She also wrote essays about her life and international travel. She wrote prolifically until she died of
cancer
Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...
on July 6, 1993.
Style
Mori usually wrote about boring or unhappy marriages and middle-aged women rebelling against them by having affairs.
There were very rarely happy endings, and after their affairs the protagonists typically found themselves in the same position as when the story began.
Her stories were compared to
Harlequin romances,
gothic novels, and American
soap operas. Her popularity came from an excellent understanding of social conditions in Japan during the 1980s, and she used that to write stories that fulfilled women's fantasies.
For that reason, her novels were very popular.
Selected bibliography
Short story collections
* Joji (情事), 1978
* Yuwaku (誘惑), 1980
*
Beddo no otogibanashi (ベッドのおとぎばなし), 1986
* Tuinkuru monogatari (トウィンクル物語), 1992
Novels
*''Dezato wa anata'' (デザートはあなた), 1991
*''Yogoto no yurikago, fune, aruiwa senjo'' (夜ごとの揺り籠、舟、あるいは戦場), 1986
Translations
*
Scarlett by
Alexandra Ripley
Alexandra Ripley ( Braid; January 8, 1934 – January 10, 2004) was an American writer best known as the author of '' Scarlett'' (1991), written as a sequel to '' Gone with the Wind''. Her first novel was ''Who's the Lady in the President's Bed ...
, 1992.
References
1940 births
1993 deaths
Japanese women novelists
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mori, Yoko
People from Shizuoka Prefecture
Tokyo University of the Arts alumni