Kyoko Mori
Kyoko Mori is a Japanese American writer whose work intricately explores themes of identity, culture, and personal loss. Encouraged by her family, especially her mother, she began writing at a young age and emerged as a voice reflecting her experiences and struggles. Much of her literature is informed by her mother's suicide, an event that profoundly shaped her life and writing. After enduring an abusive household following her mother's death, Mori relocated to the United States, where she pursued a formal education in writing.
Mori's notable works include her debut novel "Shizuko's Daughter" and several memoirs, such as "The Dream of Water," which examine her dual cultural identity and the complexities of belonging. She often writes about the feeling of being caught between two worlds, conveying a sense of both familiarity and alienation in her experiences. Through her stories and essays, Mori aims to give voice to women's experiences in Japan, challenging traditional norms. Her writing serves as a bridge between her past and present, highlighting the nuances of her bicultural existence and the ongoing quest for connection and understanding.
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Subject Terms
Kyoko Mori
Writer
- Born: March 9, 1957
- Birthplace: Kobe, Japan
Author Profile
Writer. Encouraged by her mother, Kyoko Mori began writing at an early age, winning essay contests in grade school. Her grandfather taught writing, and her mother’s family, reduced to near poverty after World War II as a result of their land having been redistributed, emphasized education, writing, and an appreciation of culture. Her mother fostered an appreciation of nature and art and encouraged her to apply to a nontraditional high school. In 1969, Mori was accepted and began classes one month after her mother’s suicide.
Much of Mori’s writing focuses on coming to terms with her mother’s suicide. An appreciation of her mother’s influence underlies these works, despite her discernible disquiet over the suicide. After her mother’s death, Mori lived with her abusive father and manipulative stepmother until 1973, when she left Japan for the first time to attend a year of high school in Arizona. Mori then moved to the United States permanently in 1977 to study writing, receiving her BA from Rockford College and her PhD in creative writing from the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee in 1984. In 1994 she published a book of poetry, Fallout, and a novel, Shizuko's Daughter.
In 1990, Mori returned to Japan for the first time in thirteen years. This trip is the subject of The Dream of Water (1996), a memoir which develops themes that appear throughout Mori’s work: her mother’s suicide, her relationship with her father, and the attempt to find a home between two cultures. She published another novel, One Bird, in 1996 and another memoir, Polite Lies: On Being a Woman Trapped Between Two Cultures, in 1999. This exploration of both fiction and nonfiction continued with the novel Stone Field, True Arrow (2001) and the memoir Yarn: Remembering the Way Home (2009). Her 2013 short story for new readers, Barn Cat, part of the Gemma Open Door Series, was well received. She also published several essays including “Pet Love” (2016), “On Birds, Cats, and Children” (2018), and “Training (with) My Cats” (2019).
Mori's work often expresses the feeling of being somewhat out of place and a bit surprised to be living in the United States as a Japanese American (“in a small Wisconsin town where the old women in diners don’t look anything like my grandmother”). She also felt a “mixture of familiarity and strangeness,” “fondness and regret” when she returned to Japan. “Home” is not a stable concept; she described the trip as “going from one foreign place to another.”
Mori’s writing can be seen as a way of establishing connections between these two cultures: “Most of my short stories are set in Japan, and my poems tend to juxtapose my memories of Japan with my life in the Midwest.” Her work is also intended to give voice to her mother and to women in Japan, whose expression is restricted by a traditional, masculine culture. She perceives her identity “as a writer, not as a wife,” unlike the women she describes in Japan.
Bibliography
Gillan, Maria Mazziotti, ed. Unsettling America: An Anthology of Contemporary Multicultural Poetry. Viking, 1994.
Giovanni, Nikki, ed. Grand Mothers: Poems, Reminiscences, and Short Stories About the Keepers of Our Tradition. Holt, 1994.
"Kyoko Mori." George Mason University, english.gmu.edu/people/kmori. Accessed 22 Apr. 2023.
Kyoko Mori, kyokomori.com. Accessed 22 Apr. 2023.
"Kyoko Mori." Lesley University, lesley.edu/about/faculty-staff-directory/kyoko-mori. Accessed 22 Apr. 2023.
Lim, Shirley Geok-Lin, ed. The Forbidden Stitch: An Asian-American Women’s Anthology. Calyx, 1988.