NAGAI KAFÛ (1879–1959). Nagai Kafû, given name Sôkichi, was the half-brother of Takami Jun. He attended a foreign-language college studying Chinese but dropped out to pursue the writing career he had begun to develop while studying with Hirotsu Ryûrô. Nagai is best known for his depiction of early 20th-century Tokyo entertainment districts. His works include Amerika monogatari (1908; tr. American Stories, 1999) and Ude kurabe (1916–17; tr. Geisha in Rivalry, 1963). See also MODERN THEATER; NATURALISM; SATÔ HARUO; THEATER REFORM.
NAGASAKI. Prior to the Tokugawa period, Nagasaki, a port city on the extreme western coast of Kyushu, became a center of European trade owing to the conversion of its feudal lord to the newly introduced Christianity. After Christianity and the Portuguese were banished by the Tokugawa family, the Dutch East India Company was allowed a small trading space in Nagasaki. As Dutch books filtered into Japan, Nagasaki became a center of rangaku (Dutch learning) studies, and many of the translators and diplomats of the Meiji period learned their skills through materials imported by way of Nagasaki. The town has historically been associated with Christianity, adding a tragic irony to its site as a nuclear bomb target during World War II. Both Nagasaki’s Christian and atomic bomb victim conflicts appear often in works by such Japanese writers as Endô Shûsaku, Hayashi Kyôko (1930–), and Sata Ineko. See also HIROTSU RYÛRÔ; ISHIGURO KAZUO; ITÔ SHIZUO; KAKURE KIRISHITAN; MURAKAMI RYÛ.
NAGATSUKA TAKASHI (1879–1915). Nagatsuka Takashi was a poet from Ibaraki Prefecture. At the age of 19 he became interested in Masaoka Shiki’s lyrical portrayal of nature, and two years later helped Masaoka launch the poetry journal Araragi (The Yew). Nagatsuka is mainly known for his writing of tanka, and his 1914 collection Hari no gotoku (Like a Needle) is his most noteworthy lyrical publication. Nagatsuka also wrote novels, most notably Tsuchi (1910; tr. The Soil, 1981), a depiction of agrarian poverty written in dialect, which was serialized in the Asahi newspaper. He died of tuberculosis at the young age of 37. See also GENBUN ITCHI.
NAGAYO YOSHIRÔ (1888–1961). Nagayo Yoshirô was a novelist, literary critic, and playwright. In college, he became acquainted with Shiga Naoya and Mushanokôji Saneatsu and joined them in publishing the literary journal Shirakaba (White Birch). Following the 1923 Kantô Earthquake, he and Mushanokôji jointly published Fuji (Unique), a new literary magazine. In it, Nagayo’s criticism argued against the proletarian literature movement. Some of Nagayo’s notable works include the play Indara no ko (Child of Indra, 1921), the historical novel Takezawa sensei to iu hito (Mr. Takezawa, 1924–25), and the screenplay for the film Seidô no Kirisuto (1956; tr. The Bronze Christ, 1959). See also MODERN THEATER.
NAKA KANSUKE (1885–1965). Naka Kansuke was an author and poet from Tokyo. He studied Japanese literature at Tokyo University under Natsume Sôseki, who recommended that Naka publish his memoir-like novel Gin no saji (1913–14; tr. The Silver Spoon, 1956) in the Asahi newspaper. He distanced himself from the politics of the bundan (writers’ guilds), and was known for keeping aloof from literary cliques or factions. See also POETRY.
NAKAE CHÔMIN (1847–1901). Nakae Chômin, given name Tokusuke, was an influential philosopher and translator during the Meiji period. Nakae translated a number of French works into Japanese after studying in France in the 1870s as a member of the Iwakura Mission. A radical supporter of the Freedom and People’s Rights Movement, he authored works discussing democracy and criticizing the Meiji government.
NAKAGAMI KENJI (1946–1992). Nakagami Kenji was a writer, critic, and poet of burakumin ancestry who wrote his first novels while working manual labor at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport. Nakagami won the Akutagawa Ryûnosuke Prize for Misaki (1975; tr. The Cape, 1999), but died early from kidney cancer at the age of 46. See also POETRY.
NAKAHARA CHÛYA (1907–1937). Nakahara Chûya was a poet from Yamaguchi Prefecture. When Nakahara was just eight years old, his younger brother died and Nakahara sought solace for his mourning in poetry. He originally composed tanka, but in his teens became more interested in free verse poetry, particularly that of the European Dadaists. He graduated from Tokyo University, and while there rubbed shoulders with many of the leading men of letters of the day, including Ôoka Shôhei and Kobayashi Hideo, who introduced him to the works of French symbolist poets. Mainstream publishers rejected Nakahara’s works throughout his life, so he published in small literary journals. The death of his only child in infancy was a great source of anxiety and pain depicted in his later writings. Nakahara died of cerebral meningitis. Although only one of Nakahara’s anthologies, Yagi no uta (1934; tr. Poems of the Goat, 2002), was published during his lifetime, Kobayashi and Ôoka promoted his poetry posthumously, and his poems are now studied in Japanese schools. The city of Yamaguchi established the annual Nakahara Chûya Prize in 1996, awarded to a poetry anthology characterized by a “fresh sensibility.” See also LITERARY AWARDS.
NAKAJIMA ATSUSHI (1909–1942). Nakajima Atsushi wrote poetic short stories set in Micronesia. His one major novel, Hikari to kaze to yume (1942; tr. Light, Wind and Dreams, 1962), is based on the life of Robert Louis Stevenson. He died at a young age of pneumonia contracted as a teacher in Palau. See also COLONIAL LITERATURE; POETRY.
NAKAMURA MASANAO (1832–1891). Nakamura Masanao was a samurai philosopher who was chosen by the Tokugawa shogunate to study abroad in Great Britain, where he learned English. Upon returning to Japan, he published loose translations of Samuel Smiles’ Self Help (Saikoku risshi hen or Success Stories from Western Countries, 1870) and John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty (Jiyû no ri or The Logic of Liberty, 1871). Both became bestsellers and had a profound impact on the Meiji Restoration. Nakamura later taught at Tokyo University and helped found two other universities in Tokyo. He is one of a handful of Japanese philosophers to convert to Christianity, as he considered it the Western powers’ source of success. See also ADAPTATIONS.
NAKAMURA MITSUO (1911–1988). Nakamura Mitsuo was the pen name of Koba Ichirô, literary critic, playwright, and biographer. He attended Tokyo University and there published criticism in the journal Bungakkai (Literary World). The success of his essay on novelist Futabatei Shimei launched his critical career. In 1938, Nakamura studied in France but returned to Japan at the outbreak of World War II. His controversial postwar essay “Fûzoku shôsetsu ron” (On the Manner of Novels, 1950) attacked the I-Novel as little more than a thinly disguised autobiography. He also wrote stage plays and novels. See also MODERN THEATER; THEATER REFORM.
NAKAMURA SHIN’ICHIRÔ (1918–1997). Nakamura Shin’ichirô was a novelist born in Tokyo and raised by his maternal grandparents in Shizuoka Prefecture. Nakamura graduated from Tokyo University, where he made the acquaintance of literary figures Fukunaga Takehiko, Hori Tatsuo, and Katô Shûichi. His works crossed multiple genres, including translating works from French and Chinese. He won the Tanizaki Jun’ichirô Prize for Natsu (Summer, 1978) and the Yomiuri Prize for Kakizaki Hakyô no shôgai (Life of Kakizaki Hakyô, 1989).
NAKAMURA TEIJO (1900–1988). Nakamura Teijo, given name Hamako, was a haiku poetess from Kumamoto Prefecture. She published her first set of verses, Haruyuki (Spring Snow, 1934), in the journal Hototogisu (The Cuckoo). She published a haiku collection, Teijo kushû (Teijo’s Verse Anthology, 1944), and in 1947 founded the haiku magazine Kazabana (Snow Petals). See also POETRY; WOMEN IN LITERATURE.
NAKANO SHIGEHARU (1902–1979). Nakano Shigeharu was a novelist, literary critic, and poet from Fukui. While in high school, he met Kubokawa Tsurujirô (1903–74) and began writing tanka poetry and novels. In college, he studied Marxism, joined Kubokawa and Hori Tatsuo to found the literary journal Roba (Donkey), and became involved in the proletarian literature movement. In 1931, he joined the Communist Party and was later arrested. After World War II, he rejoined the Communist Party and served as a member of the Diet from 1947 to 1950. He is known for his novels, such as Kôotsu heitei (A, B, C, D, 1969), and an anthology of poetry. In 1978, Nakano was awarded the Mainichi Prize for his lifetime literary accomplishments. He died of gallbladder cancer the following year.
NAOKI PRIZE. The Naoki Prize (Naoki Sanjûgo shô), a semiannual literary award given to up-and-coming authors for popular fiction, was founded in 1935 in honor of author Naoki Sanjûgo. Kikuchi Kan, editor of Bungei shunjû (Literary Chronicle) magazine, created the award concurrently with the Akutagawa Ryûnosuke Prize. The award is sponsored by the Association for the Promotion of Japanese Literature and is given twice per year. The winner receives a watch and one million yen. Notable recipients include Yamada Eimi and Inoue Hisashi.
NAOKI SANJÛGO (1891–1934). Naoki Sanjûgo was the pen name of Uemura Shûichi, a writer of popular fiction. Born in Osaka, Naoki attended Waseda University but never graduated, instead moving between Tokyo and Osaka, trying his hand at film writing before settling as a critic for the literary journal Bungei shunjû (Literary Chronicle). He made a name for himself writing popular novels, and over 40 of his works were made into films, most notably the historical novel Kômon kaikokuki (History of a Roving Aristocrat, 1929). An eccentric, Naoki selected his pen name to match his age (sanjûgo mean 35). Following his premature death of encephalitis, his friend and former employer Kikuchi Kan established a literary award in his name to honor new writers of popular fiction.
NATIONAL DIET LIBRARY. See DIET LIBRARY.
NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF JAPANESE LITERATURE. The National Institute of Japanese Literature (Kokubungaku kenkyû shiryôkan) is a research institute created in 1972 for the purpose of conducting and publishing research on Japanese literature. It also preserves manuscripts and books pertaining to Japanese literature. Along with housing a large number of classical writings and special collections, it contains over 180,000 microfilm and digital collections of manuscripts and other materials owned by libraries, shrines, and temples. Many of these materials are made available to the public through online databases, which are constantly being expanded. Originally located in the Gotanda area of Tokyo, the institute recently relocated to new facilities in the Tokyo suburb of Tachikawa. See also AOZORA BUNKO; DIET LIBRARY; MUSEUM OF MODERN JAPANESE LITERATURE.
NATIONALISM. Nationalism has several manifestations in modern Japan. Politically, it aligns with imperialist movements that emerged in the Meiji period and fostered the militarism that led to World War II. Japanese cultural nationalism (nihonjinron) lacks the imperialist agenda, but, akin to other ethnic chauvinisms, privileges Japanese culture, language, or race above all others. Many modern Japanese authors, particularly during the war years, found themselves caught up in nationalist sentiments, for a variety of reasons. Some, such as Tanizaki Jun’ichirô, began as proponents of modernization but subsequently became advocates of a return to traditional Japanese ways. During the postbubble recession of the late 20th century, the nationalist writer Ishihara Shintarô became the governor of Tokyo. See also ATOMIC BOMB LITERATURE; CHRISTIAN LITERATURE; COLONIAL LITERATURE; THOUGHT POLICE.
NATSUME SÔSEKI (1867–1916). Natsume Sôseki, given name Kinnosuke, was a pioneering and influential Meiji novelist seen, along with Mori Ôgai, as one of the two founding fathers of modern Japanese literature. He took an early interest in literature during middle school but was discouraged by his parents and began writing only in college after meeting Masaoka Shiki, who encouraged him to try his hand at poetry. He studied abroad in London and worked as a journalist with the fledgling newspaper industry. His style is influenced by both English and Chinese classical literature. His best-known works include the novels Wagahai wa neko de aru (1905–6; tr. I Am A Cat, 1961), Botchan (1906; tr. Botchan: Master Darling, 1947), and Kokoro (1914; tr. Kokoro: A Novel, 1957). Many of his works have been translated into English, and his face has appeared on the one thousand yen note. See also HAIKU; I-NOVEL; KARATANI KÔJIN; KUBO SAKAE; MEIAN; MIZUMURA MINAE; NAKA KANSUKE; NOGAMI YAEKO; OSANAI KAORU; PSYCHOLOGICAL LITERATURE; SANSHIRÔ; SUICIDE.
NATURALISM. Naturalism (shizen shugi) is a 19th-century European literary movement echoed in Meiji Japan. Related to realism, naturalism attempted to explain characters’ actions through scientific means. French author Émile Zola’s works spurred such Japanese authors as Tsubouchi Shôyô, Nagai Kafû, Shimazaki Tôson, and Tayama Katai to use detailed, realistic description and rationalism in their works of social criticism. See also ANTINATURALISM; BUNDAN; CHRISTIAN LITERATURE; I-NOVEL; KEN’YÛSHA; KUNIKIDA DOPPÔ; LITERARY CRITICISM; SHIGARAMI ZÔSHI; SHIMAMURA HÔGETSU; SHUGI; TOKUDA SHÛSEI.
NEJIMAKI-DORI KURONIKURU. Nejimaki-dori kuronikuru (1995; tr. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, 1998) is a novel by Murakami Haruki for which he received the Yomiuri Prize. The story revolves around Okada Toru, a lawyer unemployed by choice, and the people he meets while trying to find his wife’s cat, and later his wife, who both have inexplicably disappeared. Through Toru’s interactions with these characters, Murakami explores contemporary themes, such as the effect of the war on veterans, youth functioning outside the normal school system, spirituality, and mysticism. Set in a very Westernized Japan, the novel is accessible to non-Japanese readers, although its lack of plot and low-key protagonist disappointed some critics. Individual chapters appeared in English in the New York Times and other venues before the first full English translation was published in 1997. See also POSTMODERNISM.
NEOPERCEPTIONIST SCHOOL. The term Shinkankaku-ha (Neoperceptionist School) was coined by author Chiba Kameo (1878–1935) to describe a literary movement of the 1920s and 1930s centered among rising novelists who published in the literary journal Bungei jidai (Literary Times). Trademarks of the neoperceptionsts include the rejection of traditional I-Novel realism, an emphasis on creating an intellectual reality grounded in modes of perception (hearing, sight, taste, etc.), and a subjective approach to understanding modern consciousness, sensation, and circumstance. The school’s popularity rivaled that of the contemporary proletarian literature movement. Authors prominently involved in the movement include Yokomitsu Riichi, Kawabata Yasunari, Nakagawa Yoichi (1897–1994), and Kataoka Teppei (1894–1944). See also MODERNISM.
NIHON BUNGAKU HÔKOKUKAI. See PATRIOTIC ASSOCIATION FOR JAPANESE LITERATURE.
NIHON BUNGAKU SHINKÔKAI. See ASSOCIATION FOR THE PROMOTION OF JAPANESE LITERATURE.
NIHON KINDAI BUNGAKUKAN. See MUSEUM OF MODERN JAPANESE LITERATURE.
NIHON PEN KURABU. See JAPAN P.E.N. CLUB.
NISHIWAKI JUNZABURÔ (1894–1982). Nishiwaki Junzaburô was a poet and literary critic from Niigata Prefecture. He attended Keiô University to study economics and foreign languages and there became interested in writing English poetry and published a few poems in literary journals. After graduating, he studied abroad at Oxford, where he was exposed to modernist literature and French surrealism. Upon returning to Japan, Nishiwaki took a teaching post at Keiô and continued writing on the side, composing poetry in Japanese for the first time. He published the first Japanese surrealist poetry magazine in 1927 and founded a poetry journal, Shi to shiron (Poetry and Poetics). After World War II, Nishiwaki published another large poetry collection and translated T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land into Japanese.
NIWA FUMIO (1904–2005). Niwa Fumio, born the son of a Buddhist priest, was a novelist and essayist from Mie Prefecture. After graduating from Waseda University, he entered the Buddhist priesthood reluctantly, but gave it up two years later in order to become a writer. His most popular novel Bodaiju (tr. The Buddha Tree, 1966) tells of a young boy growing up in a Buddhist temple whose mother runs off with an actor. He worked as a war correspondent during World War II and wrote many novels with military themes. His Hebi to hato (Snakes and Doves, 1953) won the Noma Prize, and Ichiro (One Road, 1966) won the Yomiuri Prize. In 1977, he was awarded the Order of Cultural Merit. See also KÔNO TAEKO.
NIWA JUN’ICHIRÔ (1851–1919). Niwa, family name Oda, Jun’ichirô studied abroad in Great Britain immediately following the Meiji Restoration and, upon returning to Japan, published Karyû shun’wa (A Spring Tale of Blossoms and Willows, 1878). This work, an adaptation of Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s rambling Ernest Maltravers, was one of the earliest Western novels redone into Japanese and exercised a strong impact on subsequent translations. See also ADAPTIVE TRANSLATIONS.
NOBEL PRIZE FOR LITERATURE. The Nobel Prize for Literature is an international literary prize established in the will of Alfred Nobel to be awarded to an author who has produced “the most outstanding work of an idealistic tendency.” In 1968, Kawabata Yasunari became the first Japanese writer to win the prize “for his narrative mastery, which with great sensibility expresses the essence of the Japanese mind.” In 1994, a second Japanese author, Ôe Kenzaburô, was awarded the prize for creating “an imagined world where life and myth condense to form a disconcerting picture of the human predicament today.” Each year a number of Japanese literary critics speculate on when the next Japanese Nobel laureate will be chosen, and who that might be. See also LITERARY AWARDS.
NOGAMI YAEKO (1885–1985). Nogami Yaeko, née Kotegawa Yae, was born in Usuki, Ôita Prefecture, to a wealthy sake brewer. At the urging of Kinoshita Naoe, she enrolled in Meiji Jogakkô, a girls’ school in Tokyo, and studied under Natsume Sôseki. She later married and made her debut as an author with the short story “Enshi” (Ties of Fate, 1907) in the magazine Hototogisu (The Cuckoo) and was an active writer from then on. She served as honorary president of Hôsei University and made famous the saying, “Josei de aru mae ni mazu ningen de are” (“Before being a woman, you must first be a human being”). Nogami was an active member of the proletarian literature movement and focused her writings on troubled youth and mankind’s inhumanity. She also wrote works critical of the war. Nogami received many literary awards, including the Yomiuri Prize for Meiro (Maze, 1957) the Women’s Literature Prize for Hidekichi to Rikyû (Hidekichi and Rikyû, 1964), and the Asahi Prize in 1981. In 1971, Nogami was awarded the Order of Cultural Merit. She died at age 99. See also FEMINISM; MARXISM; WOMEN IN LITERATURE.
NOMA HIROSHI (1915–1991). Noma Hiroshi was a novelist, critic, and poet born in Kobe to devout Buddhist parents. In 1935, Noma graduated from Kyoto University, where he was interested in French symbolist poetry and took part in antiwar movements. He was drafted in 1941 and fought in China and the Philippines before being sent home after contracting malaria. In 1944, he joined the Communist Party (from which he was later expelled) and began his literary career with the novel Kurai e (1946; tr. Dark Pictures, 2000). His greatest literary accomplishment is the antiwar novel Shinkû chitai (1952; tr. Zone of Emptiness, 1956), which garnered him the Mainichi Prize and was quickly translated into both English and French. He was also awarded the Tanizaki Jun’ichirô Prize in 1971. See also MARXISM; NATIONALISM; WAR LITERATURE.
NOMA PRIZE FOR LITERATURE. The Noma Prize for Literature (Noma bungei shô), for new works in a wide variety of genres, including nonfiction, was formed by the Noma Service Association in 1941 after the death of Noma Seiji (1878–1938), founder of the Kôdansha publishing house. In 1989, the outstanding translation of modern Japanese literature into foreign languages was added to the genres covered by the prize. Winners receive a medal, three million yen, considerable media attention, and often go on to fill the ranks of the bundan (writers’ guilds). Notable recipients include Kawabata Yasunari, Hirotsu Kazuo, and Sata Ineko. See also LITERARY AWARDS.
NORUWEI NO MORI. Named for a famous Beatles’ tune, Noruwei no mori (1987; tr. Norwegian Wood, 1989), by Murakami Haruki, is a novel set in 1960s Tokyo at a time of worldwide student protests. The novel focuses on a low-key university student Watanabe Toru, who wanders through a number of relationships as he experiences love and loss. The protagonist’s general ambivalence about life and the events he experiences mirror the contemporary lack of student resolve and passion during Japan’s version of campus unrest. The novel has been translated into English twice, in 1989 and 2000. See also POSTMODERNISM.
NORWEGIAN WOOD. See NORUWEI NO MORI.
NOSAKA AKIYUKI (1930–). Nosaka Akiyuki is a novelist, singer, lyricist, and politician from Kamakura. Nosaka was adopted and grew up in Kobe, but lost his adoptive father in the fire raids of World War II and his younger sister to malnutrition. These experiences became the basis of his award-winning Hotaru no Haka (1967; tr. Grave of the Fireflies, 1978), which was awarded the Naoki Prize, along with his Amerika Hijiki (1967; tr. American Hijiki, 1978); the former was later made into an animated film. In 1950, Nosaka enrolled in Waseda University’s French Department, aspiring to become a chanson singer. While in college he worked as a songwriter and broadcast novelist. He also published the novel Erogotoshi-tachi (1963; tr. The Pornographers, 1968). Nosaka has been awarded the Yoshikawa Eiji Prize, the Kôdansha Essay Prize, and the Izumi Kyôka Literary Prize, among others. In 1983, Nosaka was elected to the Diet and served for eight months. He suffered a stroke in 2003, from which he is still recovering. See also WAR LITERATURE.