Taeko Kono

is a Japanese novelist and essayist.

Bio

Kono Taeko was born April 30, 1926 (15th year of Taisho) in Osaka, Japan to a wholesale goods seller and his wife. She was the fourth child of five, with two older brothers, an older sister, and a younger brother. A sickly child, she entered girls high school in 1939, where she developed an interest in the literature of Kyoka Izumi, and Junichiro Tanizaki.

During the later stages of World War II in 1944 she enrolled at Women’s University (currently Osaka University) to study economics, though before long she was forced into factory work, sewing uniforms for soldiers, while ceaseless raids overhead brought her constantly on the brink of life and death. Upon graduating in 1947 Taeko read Emily Brontë’s "Wuthering Heights". So passionately influenced by the book, Taeko promptly decided to become a writer, eventually joining a literary coterie in Tokyo, Japan in 1950. In 1952, Taeko moved to Tokyo. She worked for government affiliated organizations until November 1957, when she contracted tuberculosis. Taeko spent the next eighteen months in constant medical checks, often bed-ridden.

New author is born

In 1960, after presenting her first story, “Uses of a Female Impersonator” 「女形遣い」to the publisher 文学者 (Bungakushya), she could feel the limit of compatibility between writing and office work. She retired from office work in October.

In 1962 "Toddler Hunting" (幼児狩り) was published and awarded a prize, followed in 1963 by Crabs (蟹), which was awarded the prestigious Akutagawa Prize. In 1966 she received the Joryu Literature Prize for her short story "The Last Time" (最後の時). She later received the Yomiuri Prize for "A Sudden Voice" (不意の声) in 1968, as well as the Tanizaki prize in 1980 for "A Year-long Pastoral" (一年の牧歌). In 1965 she married the painter Yasushi Ichikawa. Since that time, she has won multiple awards and is said to be very influential in the Japanese literary community.

Main themes

Her main themes in ‘Toddler Hunting’: an obsession with young boys, a hatred of girls, a tendency towards sadomasochism. Eroticism can be seen as a central motif in her works. Nevertheless, her protagonists' affinity for sadomasochism may not be an end in of itself; it is one method her female protagonists use to express their desire for self-negation over procreation (see the works of Julia Kristeva, particularly Powers of Horror for information on this phenomenon). Her most recent works tend to be more understated, perhaps due to her age, perhaps feeling less of a need to shock and more a desire to explain the theme of humanity from a woman's perspective, which has remained throughout all of her works to this day.

English translations

* "Toddler-hunting & other stories", trans. Lucy North and Lucy Lower, New York : New Directions, 1996.

More works

* Flesh of the Bones (骨の肉)
* Blood and Shell (血と貝殻)
* A Sudden Voice (不意の声)
* Cruel tale of a hunter become prey (みいら採り猟奇譚)