Faces & TracesSawako Ariyoshi, one of postwar Japan’s finest female writers [Archives:2007/1108/Culture]
Faces & Traces is a cultural series of concise biographies of local or international famous and obscure personalities in fields such as literature, arts, culture and religion in which these individuals contribute affirmatively. It is a short journey in contemporary history, attempting to tackle numerous effective characters in human civilization.
Prepared by: Eyad N. Al-Samman
Japanese novelist, short story writer and playwright Sawako Ariyoshi was born in 1931 in Wakayama, a Japanese port city on southern Honshu Island and the capital of Wakayama prefecture. Ariyoshi moved with her family to Tokyo in 1935.
At age 6, her family again moved to the southern Indonesian island of Java, where Ariyoshi spent part of her childhood. She returned to Tokyo in 1941 to attend Tokyo's Negisi Elementary School. She continued her secondary education in Tokyo schools, graduating from the Metropolitan Women's High School in 1949.
In April of that same year, she began studying literature and theatre at the Tokyo Women's Christian College, from which she graduated in 1952. As a student, Ariyoshi developed a deep interest in the theatre, both modern and traditional Kabuki.
Soon after graduating, Ariyoshi joined the staff of a publishing company, contributing to literary journals, in addition to working as a secretary for the Azuma Kabuki theatrical dance troupe.
After winning a Rockefeller Foundation scholarship in 1959, she moved to the United States for a year to study at New York City's Sara Lawrence College, where she continued studying the performing arts, a field that had interested her since her days at Tokyo Women's Christian College.
Ariyoshi returned to Japan in 1960, working as a correspondent for Asahi newspaper. She also had the opportunity to visit China in 1961 as a member of the Japanese literature delegation.
Additionally, she visited Papua New Guinea and Indonesia in 1968, returning home that same year. Beginning from 1968, Ariyoshi dedicated most of her time to writing and composing literary works. She visited China more than four times, stopping at the Great Hall of the People, and returned to Japan in July 1978.
In her later years, Ariyoshi issued many literary and lyrical works published by Japanese publishers such as Kodansha, Shinchosha, and Shueisha up until the mid-1980s.
Although Ariyoshi's life was relatively short, she was extremely productive, completing more than 100 short stories, novels, essays, plays, musicals and movie scripts.
A prolific novelist, she dramatized significant issues in her fiction, such as the suffering involved in senility, the effects of pollution on the environment and the effects of social and political change on Japan's domestic life and values.
Many of her stories focused on Japanese women, their complex roles in society and the social issues affecting them.
Her works and writing style often are used in Japanese universities, as well as Japanese literature courses in the U.S.
Ariyoshi's career as a writer began with the 1956 publication of the story, “Juita” (Ballad), which was nominated for Japan's highest literary prize, the Akutagawa Prize. Among her other short stories are “Shiroi Tobira” (The White Door, 1957) and “Kiyu No Shi” (The Death of Kiyu, 1962).
However, Ariyoshi emerged as a major novelist in 1959 with the publication of “Ki No Kawa” (The River Ki), the first novel in her river trilogy, which would include 1963's “Arita-gawa” (The River Arita) and 1965's “Hidaka-gawa” (The River Hidaka).
“The River Ki” is the insightful story of several generations of aristocratic women in one family. It's a detail-filled novel depicting the changes in daily life and family relationships as society changes.
Resulting from Ariyoshi's time in the U.S., the novel “Hishoku” (Without Color, 1964) tackles the volatile topic of racial discrimination and prejudice, portraying the feelings of a woman who has had to leave her home country to accept the conditions of her black husband's country and culture.
Ariyoshi's 1969 historical novel “Izumo No Okuni” (The Kabuki Dancer) is a fictionalized biography of Okuni, a 17th-century priestess and dancer at the Grand Shrine in Izumo village, whom Ariyoshi credits as the founder of Kabuki theatre.
Selling more than a million copies in less than a year, her 1972 novel “Kokutsu No Hito” (The Twilight Years) describes how the heroine cares for her father-in-law as he slowly succumbs to senility.
Among Ariyoshi's other novels are 1975's “Fukugo Osen” (The Complex Contamination), which deals with environmental pollution, and 1978's “Kazunomiyasama-otome” (A Dairy about Princess Kazunomiya), which fictionally and historically depicts the life of Princess Kazunomiya.
Ariyoshi wrote 1978's “Chugoku Repoto” (China Report) following Ariyoshi's last visit to China. It is a photographed documentation of her stays in Beijing, Shanghai and other cities, but more importantly, about the time she spent with farmers at several communal farms throughout the country.
Perhaps her best-known novel, “Hanaoka Seishu No Tsuma” (The Doctor's Wife), first was published in 1966 and translated into English in 1978. It became a bestseller in France upon its 1981 translation into French.
“The Doctor's Wife” is a historical novel tracing the life of Hanaoka Seishu (1760-1835), a Wakayama physician who first developed the technique of general anesthesia. In general, the novel explores the institution of the family and the supporting role of women, who are controlled by the traditional family system and their dependence on men.
Ariyoshi quietly passed away in her sleep on Aug. 30, 1984. During her lifetime, she received several Japanese literary awards, among them the prestigious Mainichi Cultural Prize in 1979.
Although Ariyoshi passed away more than decades ago, her works continue to resonate with significance for contemporary Japanologists, especially in how she portrays the challenges for Japanese women arising from their culture and traditions.
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