Yūko Tsushima

Satoko Tsushima
Native name 津島里子
Born March 30, 1947
Mitaka, Tokyo, Japan
Died February 18, 2016(2016-02-18) (aged 68)
Pen name 津島 佑子 (Tsushima Yūko)
Occupation Writer
Language Japanese
Alma mater Shirayuri Women's University
Genre Fiction
Notable works
  • Hikari no ryōbun (光の領分)
  • Kusa no Fushido (草の臥所)
  • Hi no yama – yamazaruki (火の山―山猿記)
Notable awards

Satoko Tsushima (30 March 1947 – 18 February 2016), known by her pen name Yūko Tsushima (津島 佑子 Tsushima Yūko), was a Japanese fiction writer, essayist and critic.[1] Tsushima won many of Japan's top literary prizes in her career, including the Izumi Kyōka Prize for Literature, the Noma Literary New Face Prize, the Noma Literary Prize, the Yomiuri Prize, and the Tanizaki Prize. The New York Times called Tsushima "one of the most important writers of her generation."[2] Her work has been translated into over a dozen languages.[3]

Early life

Tsushima was born in Mitaka, Tokyo. Her father was famed novelist Osamu Dazai, who committed suicide when she was one year old.[4] She later drew on the aftermath of this experience in writing her short story "The Watery Realm."[5]

Career

While attending Shirayuri Women's University she published her first fiction. At age 24 she published her first collection of stories, Carnival (Shaniku-sai). A prolific writer, she was the winner of several literary prizes.[6] In 1972 her story "Pregnant with a Fox" ("Kitsune wo haramu") was a runner-up for the Akutagawa Prize. She was awarded the Izumi Kyōka Prize for Literature in 1977 for Kusa no Fushido (Bedchamber of Grass),[7] and the first annual Noma Literary New Face Prize for Hikari no ryōbun (The Family) in 1979.[8] In 1983 she was awarded the Kawabata Yasunari Literature Prize for her short story "Danmari ichi" ("The Silent Traders"),[9] and in 1986 she won the Yomiuri Prize for her novel Yoru no hikari ni owarete (Driven by the Light of the Night).[10] In 1998 she was awarded the 34th Tanizaki Prize and the 51st Noma Literary Prize for her novel Hi no yama – yamazaruki (Mountain of Fire: Account Of A Wild Monkey).[11][8] In 2002 she won the Osaragi Jiro Prize for Warai ookami (Laughing Wolf).[12]

Writing style

Tsushima's work is often characterized as feminist, though she did not apply this label to her own work.[13][14][15] Her writing explores the lives of marginalized people, usually women, who struggle for control of their own lives against societal and family pressures.[14][16] She has cited Tennessee Williams as a literary influence.[17] Unlike many of her contemporaries, whose writing about women tended to assume a nuclear family, Tsushima wrote about women who had been abandoned by family members.[18] Her stories, several of which draw on her own experience as a single mother,[17][19] focus on the psychological impact of abandonment on those left behind.[5][20]

Works translated into English

  • Child of Fortune (寵児, Chōji, 1978) (translation by Geraldine Harcourt)
  • Territory of Light (光の領分, Hikari no ryōbun, 1979) (translation by Geraldine Harcourt)
  • Woman Running in the Mountains (山を走る女, Yama wo hashiru onna, 1980) (translation by Geraldine Harcourt)
  • The Shooting Gallery & Other Stories (selected stories, 1973–1984) (translation by Geraldine Harcourt)
  • Laughing Wolf (笑い狼, Warai Okami, 2001) (Michigan Monograph Series in Japanese Studies, 73; translation by Dennis Washburn)

References

  1. ↑ "Tsushima, Yūko". WorldCat Identities. Retrieved 30 May 2010.
  2. ↑ Kometani, Foumiko (July 24, 1988). "'SILENCE IS ESSENTIAL'". The New York Times. Retrieved June 18, 2018.
  3. ↑ Kosaka, Kris (March 31, 2018). "'Territory of Light' is a timely translation that sheds light on Japan's marginalized". The Japan Times. Retrieved June 18, 2018.
  4. ↑ "Yuko Tsushima". J'Lit Books from Japan. Retrieved 20 October 2013.
  5. 1 2 Kosaka, Kris (May 26, 2018). "'Of Dogs and Walls': A concentrated hit of Yuko Tsushima". The Japan Times. Retrieved June 18, 2018.
  6. ↑ "訃報：作家の津島佑子さん死去６８歳　太宰治の次女 - 毎日新聞". 毎日新聞.
  7. ↑ "泉鏡花文学賞". City of Kanagawa (in Japanese). Retrieved June 20, 2018.
  8. 1 2 "過去の受賞作品". Kodansha (in Japanese). Retrieved June 20, 2018.
  9. ↑ "川端康成文学賞 過去の受賞作品" [Kawabata Yasunari Literature Prize Past Winning Works] (in Japanese). Shinchosha. Retrieved September 21, 2018.
  10. ↑ "読売文学賞　第３１回（１９７９年度）～第４０回（１９８８年度）". Yomiuri Shimbun (in Japanese). Retrieved June 21, 2018.
  11. ↑ "谷崎潤一郎賞受賞作品一覧 (List of Tanizaki Prize Award Winners)". Chuo Koron Shinsha (in Japanese). Retrieved June 20, 2018.
  12. ↑ "Authors: Yuko Tsushima". Books from Japan. Retrieved June 18, 2018.
  13. ↑ Hartley, Barbara (June 3, 2016). "Chapter 6: Feminism and Japanese Literature". In Hutchinson, Rachael; Morton, Leith Douglas. Routledge Handbook of Modern Japanese Literature. pp. 82–94.
  14. 1 2 Kosaka, Kris (December 16, 2017). "'Child of Fortune': Yuko Tsushima's prize-winning and feminist novel on womanhood". The Japan Times. Retrieved June 18, 2018.
  15. ↑ Kosaka, Kris (August 8, 2015). "'The Shooting Gallery' reveals Yuko Tsushima's existential feminism". The Japan Times. Retrieved June 18, 2018.
  16. ↑ Self, John (April 14, 2018). "Territory of Light by Yuko Tsushima review – Bracing, often breathtaking". The Irish Times. Retrieved June 18, 2018.
  17. 1 2 Tsushima, Yuko (January 22, 1989). "Yuko Tsushima: `I Am Not Pessimistic About The Future Of Women`". Chicago Tribune. Translated by Kuriki, Chieki. Retrieved June 18, 2018.
  18. ↑ McKnight, Anne; Bourdaghs, Michael. "Memento libri: New Writings and Translations from the World of Tsushima Yūko (1947~2016)". The Asia Pacific Journal. 16.
  19. ↑ Goossen, Theodore, ed. (2002). The Oxford Book of Japanese Short Stories. Oxford University Press.
  20. ↑ Langley, Lee (April 28, 2018). "A single mother hits rock bottom in Tokyo: Territory of Light reviewed". The Spectator. Retrieved June 18, 2018.
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