Haruo Umezaki
Haruo Umezaki | |
---|---|
Born | Fukuoka, Kyushu, Japan | February 15, 1915
Died | July 19, 1965 Tokyo, Japan | (aged 50)
Occupation | Writer |
Nationality | Japanese |
Alma mater | Tokyo Imperial University |
Period | 1939–1965 |
Haruo Umezaki (梅崎春生, Umezaki Haruo, February 15, 1915 – July 19, 1965) was a Japanese writer of short stories and novels.[1]
Biography[]
Born in Fukuoka, Kyushu, Umezaki studied at the 5th High School of Kumamoto University, later at the Tokyo Imperial University where he majored in Japanese literature.[1] He then worked at the same Tokyo University in the Faculty of Education Sciences (kyōiku). In 1944, he was drafted as a crypto specialist for the Imperial Japanese Navy and stationed in Kyushu, an experience which he later dramatised in his famous novella Sakurajima, published in 1946.[2]
After the war, he worked for the Sunao (素直) magazine, led by poet and social activist (1914–1979),[3] in which Sakurajima and some of his short stories were published. Sakurajima established Umezaki as a representative of Japanese postwar literature along writers like Hiroshi Noma and Rinzō Shiina.[1][4] The war theme later gave way to satirical stories like Boroya no shunjū,[5][6] and still later to the examination of human anxiety in modern society.[6]
Umezaki died of liver cirrhosis in Tokyo on 19 July 1965.[1]
Selected Works[]
- Fūen (風宴), 1939.
- Sakurajima (桜島), 1946.
- Hi no hate (日の果て, End of the Sun), 1947.
- Kuroi hana (黒い花, Black Flower), 1950.
- Nise no kisetsu (Season of forgery), 1954.
- Boroya no shunjū (ボロ家の春秋, Shanty Life or Occurrences of an Old Dilapidated House), 1954.
- Suna dokei (砂時計, The Hourglass), 1955.
- Tsumujikaze (つむじ風), 1957.
- Kurui-dako (狂ひ凧), 1963.
- Genka (幻化), 1965.
Awards[]
- 1954: Naoki Prize for Boroya no shunjū
- 1955: Shinchō Award for Suna dokei
- 1963: Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Award for Kurui-dako
- 1965: Mainichi Publishing Culture Award for Genka (posthumously)[1]
Adaptations[]
- Films
- 1954: Hi no hate, directed by Satsuo Yamamoto
- 1963: Tsumujikaze, directed by Noboru Nakamura
References[]
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d e "梅崎春生 (Haruo Umezaki)". Kotobank (in Japanese). Retrieved 15 August 2021.
- ^ "桜島 (Sakurajima)". Kotobank (in Japanese). Retrieved 14 August 2021.
- ^ Koga, Akira (2004). 小説の相貌: 「読みの共振運動論」の試み. Kagoshima: Nanpo Shinsha. p. 251.
- ^ "戦後文学 (Postwar literature)". Kotobank (in Japanese). Retrieved 15 August 2021.
- ^ Frédéric, Louis (2002). Japan Encyclopedia. Cambridge and London: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. p. 1014. ISBN 978-0-67400770-3.
- ^ Jump up to: a b New Orient. 7. Czechoslovak Society for Eastern Studies. 1968. p. 26.
Further reading[]
- Kumamoto University Prominent Alumni – Haruo Umezaki : http://ewww.kumamoto-u.ac.jp/dept/fifth/alumni/
- Erik R. Lofgren: Democratizing Illnesses: Umezaki Haruo, Censorship, and Subversion. In: Comparative Literature. 52, no 2, 2000, p. 157–178
- Scott J. Miller: Historical Dictionary of Modern Japanese Literature and Theater. In: Historical Dictionaries of Literature and the arts. Bd. 33, Scarecrow Press, Maryland 2009
- Kyle Grossman, Pomona College: Authors and Soldiers: Reconstructing History in Postwar Japan, 2012. At Claremont.edu.
- 20th-century Japanese male writers
- 20th-century Japanese novelists
- 1915 births
- 1965 deaths
- University of Tokyo alumni
- Winners of the Naoki Prize
- Imperial Japanese Navy personnel of World War II