Ōe Kenzaburō

Ōe Kenzaburō, born in 1935, Japanese writer and essayist, who is perhaps the greatest Japanese novelist since World War II (1939-1945). He won the 1994 Nobel Prize in literature.

Ōe was born in a remote mountain village in Shikoku, a location often featured in his work, and grew up during World War II. In 1954 he entered Tokyo University and in 1958 won the prestigious Akutagawa Prize for his story Shiiku (1958; translated as The Catch, 1959), describing a village's custody of a captured black airman. His first full-length novel, Memushiri kouchi (1958; Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids, 1995), established his reputation as an important postwar writer. Ōe wrote about the alienating conditions of modern Japan while supporting left-wing political causes. Despite his political sympathies, Ōe maintained a friendship with nationalist writer Mishima Yukio.

In 1963 the birth of a mentally handicapped son and a visit to Hiroshima heralded a new direction in Ōe's writing. Hiroshima noto (1965; Hiroshima Notes, 1995) combines reportage with reflection on the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, in August 1945. This period of Ōe's career culminated in his masterpiece Man'en gannen no futtoboru (1967; The Silent Cry, 1974). A complex and intellectual work, the novel contains themes of existential crisis, history, myth, and cultural identity. Later novels explore antinuclear and ecological issues. Ōe's works also include Kozui wa waga tamashii ni oyobi (The Floodwaters Have Come in Unto My Soul, 1973), Dojidai gemu (Contemporary Games, 1979), Jinsei no shinseki (1989; An Echo of Heaven, 1996), the science fiction best-seller Chiryoto (The Treatment Tower, 1990), Shizuka no seikatsu (1990; A Quiet Life, 1996), and Pinchi ranna choshu (1994; The Pinch Runner Memorandum, 1997).