Fumiko Hayashi (author)

Fumiko Hayashi

Fumiko Hayashi (林 芙美子 Hayashi Fumiko, December 31, 1903 or 1904 (Japanese sources disagree on the birth year) – June 28, 1951) was a Japanese novelist and poet.

Life and career

Hayashi was born in Shimonoseki, Japan. When Hayashi was seven, her mother ran away with a manager of her common-law husband's store, and afterwards the three worked in Kyūshū as itinerant merchants. After graduating from high school in 1922, Hayashi moved to Tokyo with a lover and lived with several men until settling into marriage with the painter Rokubin Tezuka (手塚 緑敏) in 1926.

Many of her works revolve around themes of free spirited women and troubled relationships. One of her best-known works is Hōrōki (translated into English as "Vagabond's Song" or "Diary of a Vagabond") (放浪記, 1927), which was adapted into the anime Wandering Days. Another is her late novel Ukigumo (Floating Clouds, 1951), which was made into a movie by Mikio Naruse in 1955. Naruse filmed several of her books, and also directed a biographical film about her in 1962, Horoki (A Wanderer's Notebook).

Hayashi's work is notable as well for its feminist themes. She was later to face criticism for accepting sponsored-trips by the Japanese military government to occupied China, from where she reported positively on Japanese administration. In 1942-43, as part of a larger group of women writers, she also travelled to Southeast Asia, spending around half a year, primarily in Java and Sumatra. Some of her activities were reported in both the local Indonesian presses, as well as in Japan.

Ericson's (1997) translations and analysis of the immensely popular Hōrōki and Suisen (Narcissus) suggest that Hayashi's appeal is rooted in the clarity with which she conveys the humanity not just of women, but also others on the underside of Japanese society.

Works

Works by Hayashi include:

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hayashi Fumiko.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Goble, A., ed. (1999). The Complete Index to Literary Sources in Film. Walter de Gruyter. p. 212. ISBN 9783110951943.

in Under Fire: Women and World War II. Verloren Publishers.

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