Everything about Fumiko Enchi totally explained
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'd 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 Further Information
Get more info on 'Fumiko Enchi'.
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