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Yoshikawa Eiji (吉川 英治,
August 11,
1892 -
September 7,
1972) was a
Japanese author specializing in
historical novels.
Life
He was born Yoshikawa Hidetsugu (吉川英次) in
Kanagawa prefecture, in what is now a part of
Yokohama. Because of his father's failed business, he had to drop out
of primary shcool to work when he was eleven years old. When he was 18,
after a near-fatal accident working at the Yokohama docks, he moved to
Tokyo and became an apprentice in a gold
lacquer workshop. Around this time he became interested in comic
haiku. He joined a poetry society and started writing comic haikus
under the pseudonymn "Kijiro".
In
1914, with The Tale of
Enoshima, he won first prize in a novel-writing contest sponsored
by the publisher
Kodansha. He joined the newspaper Maiyu Shimbun in
1921, and in the following year he began publishing serializations,
starting with Life of
Shinran.
He married Yasu Akazawa in
1923, the year of the
Great Kanto Earthquake. His experiences in the earthquake strengthened
his resolve to make writing his career. In the following years he
published stories in various periodicals published by Kodansha, which
recognized him as their number one author. He used 19 different pen names
before settling on Yoshikawa Eiji. He first used this pen-name with the
serialization of Sword Trouble, Woman Trouble. HIs name became a
household word after Secret Record of Naruto was serialized in
the
Osaka
Mainichi Shimbun. From then on the public's appetite for his
brand of adventure writing was insatiable.
In the early thirties his writing became introspective, reflecting
growing troubles in his personal life. But in
1935, with the serialization of
Miyamoto Musashi in the
Asahi Shimbun, his writing settled firmly in the genre of
historical adventure fiction.
Upon the outbreak of war with
China in
1937 the Asahi Shimbun sent him into the field as a special
correspondent. At this time he also divorced Yasu Akazawa and married
Fumiko Ikedo. During the war he continued writing novels, and became more
influenced by Chinese culture. Among the works of this period are
Taiko and his re-telling of the
Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
At the end of the war he stopped writing and settled down to a quiet
retirement in Yoshino (present-day Oumeshi) on the outskirts of Tokyo, but
he soon started writing again in
1947. His post-war works include New
Tale of the Heike, published in the Asahi Weekly (1950),
and A Private Record of the
Pacific War (1958).
He was awarded the Cultural Order of Merit in
1960 and the Mainichi Art Award just before his death in
1962, of cancer.
English Translations
Four of his books have been translated into English. They are:
- Miyamoto Musashi translated as Musashi by Charles
S. Terry
ISBN 4-7700-1957-2
- Taiko ki translated as Taiko: An Epic Novel of War and
Glory in Feudal Japan by William Scott Wilson
ISBN 4-7700-2609-9
- Shin Heike monogatari translated as The Heike Story: A
Modern Translation of the Classic Tale of Love and War by Fuki
Wooyenaka Uramatsu. Illustrated by Kenkichi Sugimoto.
ISBN 0-8048-3318-4
- Wasurenokori no ki translated as Fragments of a Past: A
Memoir by Edwin McClellan
ISBN 4-7700-2064-3
Works in Print in Japanese
The Japanese publisher Kodansha currently publishes an 80-volume
series: Yoshikawa Eiji Rekishi Jidai Bunko, or Eiji
Yoshikawa's Historical Fiction in Paperback. Kodansha numbers the
series from 1 to 80.
- 1 - 険難女難 (Kennan Jonan) - Sword Trouble, Woman Trouble
- 2 - 4 (in three volumes) - 鳴門秘帖 (Naruto Hitcho) - Secret
Record of Naruto
- 5 - 7 (in three volumes) - 江戸三國志 (Edo Sangoku-shi) - The
Three Kingdoms of
Edo
- 8 - かんかん虫は唄う (Kankan Mushi wa Utau) - "Kan-kan the insect
sings" and other stories
- 9 - 牢獄の花嫁 (Rougoku no Hanayome) - The Jail Bride
- 10 - 松の露八 (Matsu no Rohachi) - Rohachi of the Pines
- 11 - 13 (in three volumes) - 親鸞 (Shinran)
- 14 - 21 (in eight volumes) - 宮本武蔵 (Miyamoto Musashi)
- 22 - 32 (in eleven volumes) - 新書太閣記 (Shinsho Taiko ki) -
Paperback Life of the Taiko
- 33 - 40 (in eight volumes) - 三國志 (Sangoku shi) - Romance of
the Three Kingdoms
- 41 - 42 (in two volumes) - 源頼朝 (Minamoto
Yoritomo)
- 43 - 上杉謙信 (Uesugi
Kenshin)
- 44 - 黒田如水 (Kuroda
Yoshitaka)
- 45 - 大岡越前 (Ooka
Echizen)
- 46 - 平の将門 (Taira
no Masakado)
- 47 - 62 (in sixteen volumes) - 新家物語 (Shin Heike monogatari)
- New Tale of the Heike
- 63 - 70 (in eight volumes) - 私本太平記 (Shihon Taihei ki) - Private
Record of the Pacific War
- 71 - 74 (in four volumes) - 新水滸伝 (Shin Suikoden) - New
Tales from the
Water Margin
- 75 - 治朗吉格子 (Jirokichi Goshi) - "Jirokichi Goshi" and other
stories
- 76 - 柳生月影沙 (Yagyu Tsukikage sho) - "The Papers of Yagyu
Tsukikage" and other stories
- 77 - 忘れ残りの記 (Wasurenokori no ki) - Record of Things Left
Unforgotten
- 78 - 80 (in three volumes) - 神州天馬侠 (Shinshu Tenma Kyo)
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