Sawako Ariyoshi
Sawako Ariyoshi was a prominent Japanese novelist and playwright, born on January 21, 1931, in Wakayama, Japan. As the only daughter in a distinguished family, she experienced a diverse upbringing that included living in various countries due to her father's banking career. This international exposure influenced her literary career, as she began reading classic Japanese authors at a young age and later pursued studies in English literature. Ariyoshi became a significant voice in Japanese literature after World War II, known for addressing pressing social issues such as the care of the elderly, women's rights, and environmental concerns.
She wrote a wide array of works, including novels, short stories, and scripts, with her 1972 novel "The Twilight Years" achieving remarkable success and selling over a million copies shortly after its release. Despite facing challenges as a female author in a male-dominated literary landscape, she received several notable awards for her contributions to literature. Her prolific career included international travel, which enriched her writing and perspective. Sawako Ariyoshi passed away in 1984, leaving behind a legacy that continues to influence discussions on social issues in Japan. A memorial museum in her honor was announced in 1986, celebrating her impact on literature and culture.
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Subject Terms
Sawako Ariyoshi
- Born: January 21, 1931
- Birthplace: Wakayama, Japan
- Died: August 30, 1984
- Place of death: Tokyo, Japan
Biography
The only daughter of Shinji and Akitsu Ariyoshi, descended from generations of a powerful family, Sawako Ariyoshi was born in Wakayama, Japan, on January 21, 1931. She had two brothers. Shinji Ariyoshi was a banker in the New York City branch of the Yokohama Specie Bank until April, 1935, when Sawako was four. He was then transferred to Tokyo, and to Java two years later, where his daughter attended the Japanese Elementary School in Batavia, Java (later Jakarta, Indonesia).
Children’s books being scarce, Ariyoshi began reading the works of Natsume Sōseki and Arishima Takeo, which her father owned. She returned to Wakayama, Japan, in 1940, and lived in Tokyo after another brief stint in Java. She attended five different elementary schools and, being a sickly child, was absent a great deal. After attending the Takenodai Women’s School, the Tokyo Municipal Higher Women’s School, and the Tokyo Women’s Junior College (translated by some as Tokyo Christian Women’s University), she graduated in 1952 with a major in English literature. Meanwhile, she became interested in modern theater and in traditional Japanese performing arts and joined the Kabuki Studies Group. In 1961, Ariyoshi married Jin Akira, an impresario who ran the Friends of the Arts program. They had a daughter, Tamao. After two years, the marriage failed, possibly due to the strain of pursuing a career while following the traditional Japanese custom of living with her in-laws.
Shortly before Ariyoshi’s graduation, she worked briefly with the Engekikai (theater world), a drama journal, where she edited an issue on the mid-nineteenth century playwright Kawatake Mokuami. Soon after college graduation, she was an editor for the Okura Publishing Company and contributed to the poetry journal Hakuchigun (idiot horde). Between 1954 and 1956, she did secretarial work and assisted in stage production for the Azuma Kabuki Association. In 1960, Ariyoshi began the first of many travels abroad.
A Rockefeller Grant provided for study at Sarah Lawrence College in New York; at the end of this period of study, she traveled through Europe and the Middle East. In 1968, she visited the South Seas, Cambodia, Indonesia, and New Guinea. In New Guinea, she contracted malaria and was hospitalized for two months. She developed insomnia for which she turned to sedatives and alcohol for relief; she never recovered from the dependency that resulted. In 1971, she made the first of five visits to China, one of which provided material for two novels about racial prejudice. Later she traveled through the United States and Europe to research how societies and government institutions deal with their elderly.
Ariyoshi was one of the most widely read novelists in Japan following World War II and was highly influential in activating debate, through her writing, on social issues, especially on care for the elderly, the status of women, and pollution. Not only was she prolific, Ariyoshi was also diverse: She produced novels, short stories, play productions, television and radio scripts, and translations of other writers’ works. Her 1972 novel, Kokotsu no hito (the enraptured man; translated as The Twilight Years, 1984), sold over a million hardback copies within six months of publication.
Prejudice against women authors kept Ariyoshi from receiving some of the most prestigious prizes; nevertheless, a list of her honors is impressive. In addition to being a finalist or a nominee for some important prizes, she won the Fine Arts Festival Award, given by the Minister of Education twice, the Naoki Prize for popular works, the Women’s Literature Prize, the Fujin Koron Readers’ Award, the Shosetsu Shincho Award, the Bungei Shunju Readers’ Award, and the Mainichi Cultural Prize. Twelve of her works have been translated into English.
Ariyoshi died in her sleep in 1984. In January, 1986, plans were announced for an Ariyoshi Sawako Memorial Museum to be erected in Wakayama.