Yūzō Yamamoto (山本 有三, Yamamoto Yūzō, 27 July 1887 - 11 January 1974) was a Japanese novelist and playwright.[1][2][3] His real name was written as "山本 勇造" but pronounced the same as his pen name.
Biography
Yamamoto was born to a family of kimono makers in Tochigi City, Tochigi Prefecture.[1] After finishing high school, he started an apprenticeship and later worked in the family business, before eventually entering the German literature department at Tokyo Imperial University.[1] While still a student, he contributed to the literary magazine Shinshicho.[3] He debuted as a playwright with The Crown of Life (1920) and gained a reputation for his solidly crafted plays, notably Sakazaki, Lord Dewa (1920) and Dōshi no hitobito (lit. "Comrades", 1923).[1][2] A recurring theme were social injustices, suffered by women in particular,[4] while the contemporary settings of his early plays later gave way to historical ones.[3] In 1926 he turned to novels, known for their clarity of expression and dramatic composition,[5] and also wrote children's books.[2] Together with Kan Kikuchi and Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, he helped establish the Japanese Writers Association (Nihon Bungeika Kyōkai).[2] In addition to his own writings, Yamamoto translated the works of European dramatists into Japanese, including August Strindberg and Arthur Schnitzler.[4]
Yamamoto opposed the use of enigmatic expressions in written Japanese and advocated the limited use of furigana.[3][6] During World War II, he openly criticized Japan's wartime military government for its censorship policies[2] (which had stopped the serialisation of his novel Robō no ishi, lit. "A stone by the wayside").[7][8] On the other hand, Yamamoto was involved in establishing a guide issued by the government which gave instructions on how to write children's stories,[9] and later joined the Patriotic Association for Japanese Literature (1942–1945).
Yamamoto's works have been translated into English, French, German and other languages. His play The Sad Tale of a Woman, the Story of Chink Okichi served as the basis for the 1940 play Die Judith von Shimoda by Bertolt Brecht and Hella Wuolijoki.[10] His works have also repeatedly been adapted for film and television.
In 1996, Yamamoto's house in Mitaka, Tokyo, which had been expropriated during the occupation period following World War II, was converted into the Mitaka City Yūzō Yamamoto Memorial Museum.[11] A museum dedicated to his memory was also opened in his hometown Tochigi.[12]
Works (selected)
1920: Crown of Life (生命の冠, Inochi no kanmuri) stage play
1920: Infanticide (嬰児殺し, Eijigoroshi) stage play
1921: Sakazaki, Lord Dewa (坂崎出羽守, Sakazaki Dewa no Kami) stage play
1923: Dōshi no hitobito (同志の人々) stage play
1926: Nami (波) novel
1929: The Sad Tale of a Woman, the Story of Chink Okichi (Nyonin Aishi, Tojin Okichi monogatari) stage play
^ abFosdick, Carolyn E.; Edades, Jean G., eds. (1956). Drama of the East and West: A Critical Anthology of Plays, with Special Sections on Oriental and Philippine Drama. The University of Michigan. p. 74.
^Jaroslav Průšek; Zbigniew Słupski, eds. (1978). Dictionary of Oriental Literatures: East Asia. Charles E. Tuttle Company. p. 206.
^Unger, J. Marshall (1996). Literacy and Script Reform in Occupation Japan: Reading Between the Lines. Oxford University Press. p. 26. ISBN9780195356380.
^Walthall, Anne; Frühstück, Sabine, eds. (2017). Child's Play: Multi-Sensory Histories of Children and Childhood in Japan. University of California Press. p. 109. ISBN9780520296275.
^Hutchinson, Rachael, ed. (2013). Negotiating Censorship in Modern Japan. Taylor & Francis. ISBN9781135069810.
