Kenzaburō Ōe was a Japanese writer and a major figure in contemporary Japanese literature who was regarded as one of Japan’s leading contemporary novelists and the second Japanese person to win the Nobel Prize in literature. Ōe studied French Literature at Tokyo University under the direction of Professor Kazuo Watanabe who was a specialist on François Rabelais. In 1957 whilst still in school, he began publishing stories citing contemporary writing in France and the United States as his influenc... moreKenzaburō Ōe was a Japanese writer and a major figure in contemporary Japanese literature who was regarded as one of Japan’s leading contemporary novelists and the second Japanese person to win the Nobel Prize in literature. Ōe studied French Literature at Tokyo University under the direction of Professor Kazuo Watanabe who was a specialist on François Rabelais. In 1957 whilst still in school, he began publishing stories citing contemporary writing in France and the United States as his influence. Seventeen and The Death of a Political Youth were published in the Japanese literary magazine Bungakukai in 1961 inspired by Yamaguchi Otoya, who had assassinated Japan Socialist Party chairman Inejirō Asanuma in 1960, and then killed himself in prison three weeks later. He received death threats for weeks because of it and was even physically assaulted by an angry right-winger while giving a speech at Tokyo University. Ōe went on to publish numerous novels and made defiant political acts that challenged Japanese culture that he deemed morally wrong. The books that won him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1994 includes A Personal Matter a book he dedicated to his son. He also won other awards for his literature like Akutagawa Prize, Shinchosha Literary Prize and Legion of Honor amongst other Prizes.
