Popular Modern Japanese Writer: Haruki Murakami

The most popular modern Japanese writer throughout the entire world is likely Haruki Murakami. His works have been translated into 38 different languages and are often described as being very accessible to readers while still having a profoundness in them that isn't as simple to see.

Haruki Murakami was born in 1949 in Kyoto. His mother and father both taught Japanese literature and he spent most of his childhood in Kobe. As a child, Murakami was more influenced by Western culture than by the literature his parents taught. He was always interested in Western music and grew up reading Dostoyevsky, Balzac and Vonnegut instead of classic Japanese literature. Critics believe that the reason Murakami is separated from the rest of Japanese writers is because of this Western influence seen in his style, which is more freeform than most Japanese writers' styles. His novels tend to have musical themes in them as well. For example, his novel "Norwegian Wood" is named after a song from "Rubber Soul" by the Beatles.

Murakami met his wife, Yoko, at Waseda University in Tokyo where he had studied drama. He first started working in a record store, which is where one of his characters worked in one of his novels. After graduating, he opened up his own jazz bar in Tokyo called "Peter Cat". This bar lasted 8 years, from 1974 to 1982. Later on in life Murakami also worked at Tufts University, where he taught literature.

Murakami wrote his first novel in 1979, 30 years after he was born. While watching a baseball game on television, he suddenly became inspired to write a novel: "Hear the Wind Sing". Although it was translated into English, it has not been released outside of Japan because Murakami thinks that the novel is too fragmented and not up to quality. However, just after writing it he sent it into a contest and won first prize for it. Since this first novel, Murakami has had his own unique style and humor. He also likes to play around with nostalgia, which is seen in many of his works.

"Hear the Wind Sing" later turned out to be the first book of three, in a trilogy that included the same characters. "Pinball, 1973" was written due to the success of his first novel, which was then followed by "A Wild Sheep Chase". Although "A Wild Sheep Chase" has made it onto American shores, "Pinball, 1973" has suffered from the same fate as "Hear the Wind Sing". Murakami continued writing and then released "Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World" in 1985. It wasn't until 1987, however, that he became truly popular when he gained national praise for "Norwegian Wood".

Murakami continues writing and all of his books are considered to be very good by critics from all around the world. Murakami has also translated some of his favorite Western novels into Japanese, including "Catcher in the Rye". Recently his short story "Tony Takitani" was also turned into a film directed by Jun Ichikawa. His next novel, "After Dark", which has already been released in Japan, is planned to be released in English in 2007.

Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to Japan

Famous Japanese Writer: Kobo Abe

Kobo Abe, also known as Kimifusa Abe, was a Japanese writer who was born in Kita, Tokyo in 1924. Abe grew up in Manchuria, where his father had taught at a medical college. In 1941, Abe went back to Japan and began studying at Tokyo Imperial Universtiy. In 1948, he graduated with a medical degree but it is rumored that he was not allowed to practice.

In 1947, Abe published a set of poems and then released his first novel "The Road Sign at the End of the Street", which he had written in memory of his father and friends who had died in Manchuria. Through these works, his reputation grew as being a talented novelist who was more avant-garde than others of the time. In 1951, Abe won the Akutagawa Award, an important literary prize in Japan, for his novel "The Crime of Mr. S. Karuma".

What is less known is that Abe Kobo was also a member of the Communist Party. However, at the time, nearly all young Japanese writers were. Abe fought the party's leadership and then was later purged from the party in 1960. Two of his teachers both believed in anarchism as well, which may be the reason why Abe tried to take over the Communist party.

It wasn't until 1962, however, that Kobe Abe became internationally popular with his novel "The Woman in the Dunes". He started to work with director Hiroshi Teshigahara in adapting some films, including "The Woman in the Dunes".

Abe has often been compared to Franz Kafka and Samuel Beckett because of his take on people in contemporary society. His works often had a surreal feel to them, which was also similar to Kafka's works. Abe became widely popular throughout the entire world after "The Woman in the Dunes" was released. Some common themes seen in Abe's novels are confused or lost identities, isolation and greed.

He also began training performers and started directing plays after he founded his own acting studio in 1973. He even created the music for the plays with his own synthesizer. The rest of his life was mostly dedicated to writing plays, but he did write a few more novels, including "Kangaroo Notebook", his final novel before he died in 1993 from a heart attack due to a brain hemorrhage. "Kangaroo Notebook" is also famous as it was it made Abe the first Japanese writer to use a word processor to write a novel.

The city of Tyohu even held an Abe exhibition in front of their city hall for decades. At the exhibition, visitors could see his works as a photographer, the floppy disk on which he wrote "Kangaroo Notebook", the notebooks in which he wrote his earlier novels and much more. Many writers from all around the world have been influenced by his surreal works. Abe was a true artist, as he was a writer, director, poet and photographer. His novels have stood the test of time and Abe is still considered to be one of Japan's best writers of all time.

Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to Japan