Kenzaburō Ōe
Japanese Nobel laureate whose work fused myth and modern predicament.
Kenzaburō Ōe was a Japanese writer and a central figure in contemporary Japanese literature, awarded the 1994 Nobel Prize in Literature for creating "an imagined world, where life and myth condense to form a disconcerting picture of the human predicament today." He was born in a village in Ehime Prefecture on Shikoku, the third of seven children. His grandmother, a storyteller of myths and folklore, also recounted oral histories of local uprisings. After his father died in the Pacific War, his mother became the driving force behind his education, buying him books such as *The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn* and *The Wonderful Adventures of Nils*, which had a formative influence. He began school during the peak of Japanese militarism, where he was forced to pronounce loyalty to Emperor Hirohito, whom his teacher claimed was a god. After the war, feeling betrayed by these teachings, this sense of betrayal later appeared in his writing. He excelled in high school in Matsuyama, then studied at a prep school in Tokyo before studying French Literature at the University of Tokyo under a specialist on François Rabelais. His novels, short stories, and essays, strongly influenced by French and American literature and literary theory, address political, social, and philosophical issues including nuclear weapons, nuclear power, social non-conformism, and existentialism. His early works were set in his university milieu, and his first published story appeared in a literary magazine in 1957. In 1958, his short story "Shiiku" won the Akutagawa Prize and was later made into a film. His son Hikari, born with a brain damage, deeply influenced his literary career; Ōe tried to give his son a "voice" through his writing, and several of his books feature a character based on him, including the 1964 book *A Personal Matter*, which describes the psychological trauma of accepting his son.
- born
- 31 January 1935
- died
- 3 March 2023
- field
- Literature
- nationality
- Japanese
- known_for
- Nobel Prize in Literature (1994)
Lore & Background
Ōe's novels about the impact of World War II on Japan include *Memushiri kouchi* ("Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids", 1958) and *Hiroshima nōto* ("Hiroshima Notes", 1965). His short stories and essays include *Seiteki ningen* ("The Sexual Man", 1963) and *Kōzui wa waga tamashii ni oyobi* ("The Flood Invades My Spirit", 1973). The essay *Okinawa nōto* ("Okinawa Notes", 1970) led to a lawsuit by two military officers. To his son, Hikari Ōe, a noted Japanese composer and musician, did he dedicate his famous *Sora no kaibutsu Aguī* ("Aghwee the Sky Monster", 1964) and *Kojinteki na taiken* ("A Personal Matter", 1964). Ōe's Nobel lecture on 7 December 1994, entitled *Aimai na Nihon no watashi* ("Japan, the Ambiguous and Myself"), began with a commentary on his life as a child and how he was fascinated by *The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn* and *The Wonderful Adventures of Nils*, which he used to take his mind off from the terror of World War II. He described surviving various hardships by using writing as an escape, "representing these sufferings of mine in the form of the novel," and how his son Hikari similarly uses music as a method of expressing "the voice of a crying and dark soul." Ōe dedicated a large portion of his speech to his opinion of Yasunari Kawabata's acceptance speech, saying that the vagueness of Kawabata's title ("Japan, the Beautiful and Myself") and his discussions of the poems written by medieval Zen monks were the inspiration for the title of his acceptance speech. Ōe stated that rather than feeling spiritual affinity with his compatriot Kawabata, he felt more affinity with the Irish poet William Butler Yeats, whose poetry had a significant effect on his writings and his life, even being a major inspiration for his trilogy *A Flaming Green Tree* and the source of its title. Ōe stated, "Yeats is the writer in whose wake I would like to follow." He mentioned that based on his experiences of Japan, he cannot utter in unison with Kawabata the phrase "Japan, the Beautiful and Myself." Ōe also discussed the revival of militaristic feelings in Japan and the necessity for rejecting these feelings, and how Ōe desired to be of use in a cure and reconciliation of mankind.
Reader's Guide
Kenzaburō Ōe's significance lies in his ability to weave personal trauma, myth, and political critique into a body of work that challenged postwar Japanese society. His Nobel Prize recognized his creation of "an imagined world, where life and myth condense to form a disconcerting picture of the human predicament today." Although Ōe had been mentioned as a potential candidate for the prize in recent years, he was little known in the English-speaking world and few of his books were available in English translation. Ōe himself described his reaction on receiving the call from the Swedish Academy that he had been awarded the prize as "a total surprise." At the award ceremony in Stockholm on 10 December 1994, Kjell Espmark of the Swedish Academy said: "In Oe’s work, we are dealing with more than persistent leitmotifs. The books re-echo and vary each other in a great ingenious project. Here, if ever, it is justifiable to talk about a writer who is not writing books but 'building' an œuvre (...)" Espmark continued: "Oe himself has described his writing as a way of exorcising his demons. Hopefully, he will never succeed. But from his incessant wrestling with these risky beings derives an œuvre which succeeds in another way – in escaping the bounds of the author’s intentions. Oe has declared that he addresses only his Japanese readers, without glancing at his worldwide audience. But there is in his 'grotesque realism' a powerful poetry which communicates across the boundaries of languages and cultures, a poetry full of fresh observations and concise images."
Did You Know?
- Ōe is the second Japanese Nobel laureate in Literature after Yasunari Kawabata was awarded in 1968.
- Ōe dedicated his works *Sora no kaibutsu Aguī* ("Aghwee the Sky Monster", 1964) and *Kojinteki na taiken* ("A Personal Matter", 1964) to his son Hikari Ōe, a noted Japanese composer and musician.
- Ōe's essay *Okinawa nōto* ("Okinawa Notes", 1970) led to a lawsuit by two military officers.
- Ōe described his reaction to winning the Nobel Prize as 'a total surprise.'
- In his Nobel lecture, Ōe stated he felt more affinity with the Irish poet William Butler Yeats than with his compatriot Kawabata, saying 'Yeats is the writer in whose wake I would like to follow.'
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