The Era of Shohei Ooka
Writer Profile
Yutaka Yukawa
Other : Literary CriticKeio University alumni
Yutaka Yukawa
Other : Literary CriticKeio University alumni
2019/12/09
When I gave this book to a close friend from my university days, I received a thank-you note.
It said something to the effect of, "I was deeply moved that you wrote a book at this age discussing the author you talked about most when we were young."
I personally didn't think I discussed literature much during my student days. Hearing that made me reflect on whether that was indeed the case, and I was filled with emotion.
It began in high school when I read novels such as Fires on the Plain and Lady Musashino, as well as Taken Captive, a rare account of personal experience. Above all, I was drawn to the precise yet supple prose style, which is uncommon in modern and contemporary Japanese literature.
Perhaps because of that magnificent writing, Ooka's works—including the aforementioned titles as well as The Shade of Blossoms and The Incident—are now treated as "Showa classics." Ironically, by being elevated to the status of classics, people have almost stopped reading them.
However, for me, they remain "contemporary" literature to this day.
During my time working at a publishing house, I began reading Ooka's works as they were published. His work always represented the cutting edge of literature. From biographies of Taro Tominaga and Chuya Nakahara to experimental autobiographies, essays expressing dissatisfaction with contemporary Japanese literature, and the fierce controversies that followed, Shohei Ooka developed a truly vibrant and diverse body of work.
While I felt I could never keep up with the breadth of his work, the reason I never stopped following it was that Ooka's work always contained themes that modern Japanese literature must inherit.
For example, in his collection of essays Joshikiteki Bungakuron (Common Sense Literary Theory, published in 1962), he discusses the flood of entertainment-oriented novels in Japan. Entering the 2000s, this has taken on an even more complex form and has become a major issue facing contemporary literature itself.
Furthermore, in Showa Matsu (The End of Showa), published a year after Ooka's death, he captures this new form of entertainment and describes a different kind of exploration than before.
In other words, for me, "The Era of Shohei Ooka" has never ended.
*Affiliations, titles, etc., are as of the time of publication.