Takeshi Kaikō
 | This article relies largely or entirely on a single source. (July 2023) |
Kaikō Takeshi 開高 健 | |
|---|---|
Tennoji-ku, Osaka, Japan | |
| Died | 9 December 1989 (aged 58) Chigasaki, Kanagawa, Japan |
| Occupation | Writer, journalist |
| Genre | novels, short stories, essays |
Takeshi Kaikō (開高 健, Kaikō Takeshi, also "Kaikō Ken", 30 December 1930 – 9 December 1989) was a prominent post-
Early life
Kaikō was born in the
He married Yōko Maki, a poet.
Literary career
Kaikō published his first work, Na no nai machi (Nameless City, 1953) in the literary magazine Kindai Bungaku soon after his move to Tokyo. It was largely ignored by critics. However, his second work, a short story titled Panniku (Panic, 1957) published in the Shin Nippon Bunkaku, caused a sensation for its unusual concept and style. It was a story about a dedicated forester in a rural prefecture of Japan, who struggles against government incompetence and corruption. Kaikō wrote the story as a satirical allegory comparing human beings to mice.
Kaikō won the prestigious Akutagawa Prize in 1957 with his Hadaka no ōsama (The Naked King), a story critical of the pressures placed on school children by Japan's educational system.
Kaikō is considered a
However, Kaikō had a wide range of topics in his repertory. Natsu no yami (Darkness in Summer, 1971) was essentially a romance between a reporter and an expatriate Japanese woman living in Europe.
Kaikō enriched the Japanese language with the word "apache", to denote scavengers of recyclables, described in his novel, Japan's Threepenny Opera.
Considered a gourmet, in his later years, Kaikō wrote numerous essays on food and drink, as well as appearing on food-related or fishing-related
He died of
Legacy
His former house in Chigasaki, Kanagawa has been preserved as a memorial museum.
References
- Powell, Irena. Japanese Writer in Vietnam: The Two Wars of Kaiko Ken (1931-89). Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 32, No. 1 (Feb., 1998), pp. 219–244
Bibliography
- Japan's Threepenny Opera, 1959.
- English translations
- Into a Black Sun, (English language edition: Kodansha America (1981). ISBN 0-87011-428-X
- Five Thousand Runaways Dodd, Mead (1987)
- Darkness in Summer (with Cecilia Segawa Seigle), Peter Owen (1989). ISBN 0-7206-0725-6
- Giants and Toys, in: Made in Japan and Other Japanese Business Novels, transl.: Tamae K. Prindle. (1990). ISBN 0-87332-772-1
- A Certain Voice in: Mother of Dreams and Other Short Stories, ed. by Makoto Ueda
- Into a Black Sun, (English language edition: Kodansha America (1981).
External links
- Kaiko Takeshi Memorial Museum, Chigasaki, Kanagawa (Japanese site) Archived 2020-11-01 at the Wayback Machine
- Takeshi Kaiko's grave
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