Enchi, Fumiko, 1905-86, Japanese novelist and literary critic. The daughter of a well-known Japanese literary scholar, she first wrote for the theater, later turning to novels and short stories. Enchi's work covers a wide range of subjects, but is generally centered on the inner lives of women and their roles in society. Onnazaka [the waiting years], awarded the Noma Literary Prize in 1957, traces the struggle of a matriarch to hold her family together through the early years of Japan's modernization. A prolific writer despite repeated bouts of illness, Enchi received numerous awards. Her modern Japanese translation of the renowned classical Japanese novel The Tale of Genji received wide acclaim.

was the pen-name of one of the most prominent women writers in Showa period Japan. Her maiden name was Fumi Ueda.

Early life

Fumiko Enchi was born in the Asakusa district of downtown Tokyo, as the daughter of distinguished philologist and linguist Kazutoshi Ueda. Of poor health as a child, she was unable to attend classes in school on a regular basis, so her father decided to keep her at home. She was taught English, French and Chinese literature through private tutors. She was also strongly influenced by her grandmother, who introduced her to the Japanese classics such as The Tale of Genji, and Kabuki and Bunraku theater. At 13 her reading list included the works of Oscar Wilde, Edgar Allan Poe, Izumi Kyoka, Nagai Kafu, Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, and especially Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, whose sado-masochistic aestheticism particularly fascinated her.

Literary career

Her literary career began in the 1920s, when she wrote several stage plays that betrayed her sympathies with the proletarian literature movement. Banshun Soya (Noisy Night in Late Spring), her first work, was performed at the Tsukiji Shogekijo. She later began to write fiction but unlike her smooth debut as a playwright, she found it very hard to get her stories published.

She also attended the lectures of Kaoru Osanai, the founder of modern Japanese drama. In 1930, she married Yoshimatsu Enchi, a journalist with whom she had a daughter. In 1945 Enchi's home and all her possessions burned during an air raid towards the end of the Pacific War, and for several years immediately after the war she struggled with uterine cancer and surgical complications. She had two major operations, a mastectomy in 1938 and a hysterectomy in 1946.

In 1953, her novel "Himojii Tsukihi" ("Days of Hunger") was finally received favorably and the following year she won an award from the Society of Women Writers. Her novel is a violent, harrowing tale of family misfortune and physical and emotional deprivation. Her next novel was also highly praised: Onna zaka ("The Waiting Years", 1949-1957) won the Noma Literary Prize. It analyzes the plight of women who have no alternative but to accept the demeaning roles that the patriarchal family system had assigned to them. From the 1950s onward, she became quite successful, and wrote numerous novels and short stories exploring female psychology and sexuality.

She was awarded the Order of Culture by the Japanese government in 1985.

Fumiko Enchi died of a heart attack in 1986, and her grave is at Yanaka Cemetery, Tokyo.

Works

Novels

• Kaze no gotoki kotoba (The Words like the Wind, 1939)
• Ten no sachi, umi no sachi (The Treasures of Heaven and Sea, 1940)
• Shunju (Spring and Autumn, 1943)
• Onna Zaka (The Waiting Years, 1949-1957), English translation by John Bester.
• Onna Men (Masks, 1958), English translation by Juliet Winters Carpenter.
• Nama miko monogatari (A Tale of False Fortunes, 1965), English translation by Roger Kent Thomas.
• Saimu (Growing Fog, 1976)

One-Act Plays

• Furusato (A Birthplace, 1926)
• Banshu soya (A Noisy Night in Late Spring, 1928)

Translation

• Enchi Genji, a translation of The Tale of Genji into modern Japanese.

Prizes

• 1969 Tanizaki Prize---Shu wo ubau mono; Kizu aru tsubasa; Niji to shura ()

See also

• Japanese literature
• List of Japanese authors

External links

• Literary Figures of Kamakura