Eiji Yoshikawa

Eiji Yoshikawa (吉川 英治 Yoshikawa Eiji, August 11, 1892 - September 7, 1962) was a Japanese historical novelist, who is mostly retelling existing stories. Among his most well-known novels, most are revisions of past works. For instance the original manuscript of Taiko is about 15 volumes, so Yoshikawa took up the job to retell it in close and accessible language. His other books also serve similar purposes and although most of his novels aren't orignal, he had created huge amount of work and renewed the interest for the past times. He was awarded the Cultural Order of Merit in 1960 and the Mainichi Art Award just before his death in 1962, of cancer. Deservingly he is cited as one of the best Japanese and World-wide historical novelists.

Life

He was born Hidetsugu Yoshikawa (吉川英次 Yoshikawa Hidetsugu) 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 school 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".

Related Topics:
Kanagawa Prefecture - Yokohama - Tokyo - Lacquer - Haiku

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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.

Related Topics:
1914 - Enoshima - Kodansha - 1921 - Shinran

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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 Eiji Yoshikawa. 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.

Related Topics:
1923 - Great Kanto Earthquake - Osaka - Mainichi Shimbun

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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.

Related Topics:
1935 - Miyamoto Musashi - Asahi Shimbun

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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.

Related Topics:
China - 1937 - Taiko - Romance of the Three Kingdoms

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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).

Related Topics:
1947 - Tale of the Heike - 1950 - Pacific War - 1958

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