Satoko Tsushima (30 March 1947 – 18 February 2016), known by her

pen name A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen na ...

Yūko Tsushima (津島佑子 ''Tsushima Yūko''), was a Japanese fiction writer, essayist and critic. Tsushima won many of Japan's top literary prizes in her career, including the

Izumi Kyōka Prize for Literature Izumi Kyōka Prize for Literature (, ''Izumi Kyōka Bungaku Shō'') is a prize for literature in Japan named for Kyōka Izumi. It was established and started in 1973 to commemorate the 100th year since the birth of Kyōka Izumi. Kanazawa city, wh ...

, the Noma Literary New Face Prize, 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 ...

, 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 ...

and the

Tanizaki Prize The Tanizaki Prize (谷崎潤一郎賞 ''Tanizaki Jun'ichirō Shō''), named in honor of the Japanese novelist Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, is one of Japan's most sought-after literary awards. It was established in 1965 by the publishing company Chūō K� ...

. ''The

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' called Tsushima "one of the most important writers of her generation." Her work has been translated into over a dozen languages.

Early life

Tsushima was born in

Mitaka, Tokyo 260px, Inokashira Park in Mitaka is a city in the western portion of Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 190,403, and a population density of 12,000 persons per km². The total area of the city was . Geography Mit ...

, the third child (younger of two daughters) of famed novelist

Osamu Dazai was a Japanese author. A number of his most popular works, such as '' The Setting Sun'' (''Shayō'') and ''No Longer Human'' (''Ningen Shikkaku''), are considered modern-day classics. His influences include Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Murasaki Shiki ...

and Michiko Ishihara, a teacher at a girls' school. Her father committed suicide when she was one year old; she later drew on the aftermath of this experience in writing her

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...

"The Watery Realm".

Career

While attending

Shirayuri Women's University is a Catholic Japanese women's university in Chōfu, Tokyo. The university comprises four Departments of Literature and a graduate school Postgraduate or graduate education refers to academic or professional degrees, certificates, diploma ...

she published her first fiction. At age 24 she published her first collection of stories, ''Carnival'' (''Shaniku-sai''). A prolific writer, she was the winner of several literary prizes. In 1972 her story "Pregnant with a Fox" ("Kitsune wo haramu") was a runner-up for the

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 ...

. She was awarded the

in 1977 for ''Kusa no Fushido'' (''Bedchamber of Grass''), and the first annual Noma Literary New Face Prize for ''Hikari no ryōbun'' (''The Family'') in 1979. In 1983 she was awarded the Kawabata Yasunari Literature Prize for her short story "Danmari ichi" ("The Silent Traders"), and in 1986 she won the

for her novel ''Yoru no hikari ni owarete'' (''Driven by the Light of the Night''). In 1998 she was awarded the 34th

and the 51st

for her novel ''Hi no yama – yamazaruki'' (''Mountain of Fire: Account Of A Wild Monkey''). In 2002 she won the Osaragi Jiro Prize for ''Warai ookami'' (''Laughing Wolf'').

Writing style

Tsushima's work is often characterized as

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

, though she did not apply this label to her own work. Her writing explores the lives of marginalized people, usually women, who struggle for control of their own lives against societal and family pressures. She has cited

Tennessee Williams Thomas Lanier Williams III (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983), known by his pen name Tennessee Williams, was an American playwright and screenwriter. Along with contemporaries Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, he is considered among the thre ...

as a literary influence. Unlike many of her contemporaries, whose writing about women tended to assume a nuclear family, Tsushima wrote about women who had been abandoned by family members. Her stories, several of which draw on her own experience as a single mother, focus on the

psychological Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between t ...

impact of abandonment on those left behind.

Works translated into English

*''Child of Fortune'' (寵児, ''Chōji'', 1978) (translation by Geraldine Harcourt) *''Territory of Light'' (光の領分, ''Hikari no ryōbun'', 1979) (translation by Geraldine Harcourt) *''Woman Running in the Mountains'' (山を走る女, ''Yama wo hashiru onna'', 1980) (translation by Geraldine Harcourt) *''The Shooting Gallery & Other Stories'' (射的ほか短編集, 1973–1984) (translation by Geraldine Harcourt) *''A Sensitive Season'' (発情期) *''South wind'' (南風) *''The Silent Traders'' (黙市) *''The Chrysanthemum Beetle'' (菊虫) *''Missing'' (行方不明) *''The Shooting Gallery'' (射的) *''Clearing the Thickets'' (草叢) *''An Embrace'' (抱擁) *''Laughing Wolf'' (笑い狼, ''Warai Okami'', 2001) (Michigan Monograph Series in Japanese Studies, 73; translation by Dennis Washburn) *''Of Dogs and Walls'' (犬と塀について'', inu to hei nituite '', 2018),(translation by Geraldine Harcourt, Penguin Classics)

References

External links

Profile
at J'Lit Books from Japan

at JLPP (Japanese Literature Publishing Project)

ed. by Anne McKnight and Michael Bourdaghs, ''The Asia-Pacific Journal. Japan Focus'' 16, 12, 2 (15 June 2018) * Yūko Tsushima,

', tr. by Geraldine Harcourt, ''The Asia-Pacific Journal. Japan Focus'' 16, 12, 3 (15 June 2018)

''The New York Times'' (15 March 2019) {{DEFAULTSORT:Tsushima, Yuko 1947 births 2016 deaths 20th-century Japanese writers People from Mitaka, Tokyo Yomiuri Prize winners Pseudonymous women writers 20th-century Japanese women writers 20th-century pseudonymous writers