The Japanese Literature Home Page

na ni shi owaba

Ōsakayama no

   sanekazura

hito ni shirarede

kuru yoshi mogana

 

 

   If the "bedsharing vine"

Found on Mount Ōsaka were

   Only true to its name,

I would have the perfect means

To draw you unseen to my side.

 

--Minister of the Right Sanjō
Poem 25 from One Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets
(See notes and more poems.)

Literary News

25th Oda Sakunosuke Prize announced (January 9, 2009)

The 25th Oda Sakunosuke Prize will be awarded to Tamaoka Kaoru of Kakogawa City, Hyogo Prefecture, for Oyome-san (The Bride). The presentation ceremony will be held in Osaka on February 22.

39th Takami Jun Prize announced (January 12, 2009)

The 39th Takami Jun Prize has been won by Takami Hiroya for his collection Shiyō seiin (Lyrics to Sprouting Leaves, published by Shichōsha). The presentation ceremony will be held on March 13 in Tokyo.

140th Akutagawa and Naoki Prizes announced (January 15, 2009)

The 140th Akutagawa Prize has been won by Tsumura Kikuko for Potosuraimu no fune (The Lime Pothos Boat, published in the November issue of Gunzō). The 140th Naoki Prize will be shared by Tendō Arata, for Itamu hito (In Memoriam, published by Bungei Shunjū), Yamamoto Ken'ichi, for Rikyū ni tazuneyo (Go Ask Rikyū, published by PHP Kenkyūsho). The presentation ceremony will be held in Tokyo on February 20.

Letter and postcards written by Abe Kōbō discovered (January 18, 2009)

A letter and 18 postcards written by novelist and playwright Abe Kōbo (1924-1993) to author and critic Haniya Yutaka (1909-1997) have been discovered among materials donated to the Kanagawa Museum of Modern Literature in Yokohama by someone who was "connected to Haniya." The letter, dating from 1947, explains that Abe went to meet Haniya but was unsuccessful, and includes a letter of introduction written by Abe's high school teacher, who was an acquaintance of Haniya. The postcards make frequent mention of Abe's difficult financial circumstances at the beginning of his career. The donated materials also included the outline of a screenplay for adapting Abe's 1962 novel Woman in the Dunes to a Hollywood movie, and an unadopted version of the movie screenplay for Face of Another.

14th Nakahara Chūya Prize announced (February 14, 2009)

The 14th Nakahara Chūya Prize has been won by Kawakami Mieko for her collection Sentan de sasu wa sasareru wa sora ee wa (In the Forefront, Fine with Pointing and Being Pointed At, published by Seidosha). Kawakami who last year also won the Akutagawa Prize for her story Breasts and Eggs. The selection committee appears to have been won over by what what judge Takahashi Gen'ichirō called a meeting of poetry and the contemporary, and some readers appear to think that some parts of the collection draws a fine line between verse and fiction. The presentation ceremony will be held in Yamaguchi City on April 29.