is a Japanese

Japanese people

The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...

 author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

 and a major figure in contemporary Japanese literature

Japanese literature

Early works of Japanese literature were heavily influenced by cultural contact with China and Chinese literature, often written in Classical Chinese. Indian literature also had an influence through the diffusion of Buddhism in Japan...

. His works, strongly influenced by French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 and American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 literature and literary theory

Literary theory

Literary theory in a strict sense is the systematic study of the nature of literature and of the methods for analyzing literature. However, literary scholarship since the 19th century often includes—in addition to, or even instead of literary theory in the strict sense—considerations of...

, deal with political, social and philosophical issues including nuclear weapon

Nuclear weapon

A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first fission bomb test released the same amount...

s, social non-conformism and existentialism

Existentialism

Existentialism is a term applied to a school of 19th- and 20th-century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject—not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual...

.

Ōe was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature

Nobel Prize in Literature

Since 1901, the Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded annually to an author from any country who has, in the words from the will of Alfred Nobel, produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction"...

 in 1994 for creating "an imagined world, where life and myth condense to form a disconcerting picture of the human predicament today."

Life

Ōe was born in , a village now in Uchiko

Uchiko, Ehime

is a town located in Kita District, Ehime, Japan.On January 1, 2005 the town of Ikazaki, from Kita District; and the town of Oda, from Kamiukena District, were merged into Uchiko....

, Ehime Prefecture

Ehime Prefecture

is a prefecture in northwestern Shikoku, Japan. The capital is Matsuyama.-History:Until the Meiji Restoration, Ehime prefecture was known as Iyo Province...

 on the island of Shikoku

Shikoku

is the smallest and least populous of the four main islands of Japan, located south of Honshū and east of the island of Kyūshū. Its ancient names include Iyo-no-futana-shima , Iyo-shima , and Futana-shima...

 in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. He was the third son of seven children. Ōe's grandmother taught him art and oral performance. His grandmother died in 1944, and later that year, Ōe's father died in the Pacific War

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. Ōe's mother took over his father's role as educator. The books she bought him - The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Wonderful Adventures of Nils

The Wonderful Adventures of Nils

The Wonderful Adventures of Nils is a work of fiction by the Swedish author Selma Lagerlöf. It was published in two books, The Wonderful Adventures of Nils in 1906 and Further Adventures of Nils in 1907...

 - left him with an impression Ōe says 'he will carry to the grave'.

After attending local school, Ōe transferred to a high school in Matsuyama. At the age of 18, he made his first trip to Tokyo and in the following year began studying French Literature at Tokyo University under the direction of Professor Kazuo Watanabe, a specialist on François Rabelais

François Rabelais

François Rabelais was a major French Renaissance writer, doctor, Renaissance humanist, monk and Greek scholar. He has historically been regarded as a writer of fantasy, satire, the grotesque, bawdy jokes and songs...

. He began publishing stories in 1957 while still a student, strongly influenced by contemporary writing in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 and the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

.

He married in February 1960. His wife, Yukari, was the daughter of film director Mansaku Itami and sister of film director Juzo Itami

Juzo Itami

, born , was an actor and a popular modern Japanese film director. Many critics came to regard him as Japan's greatest director since Akira Kurosawa. His 10 movies, all of which he wrote himself, are comic satires on elements of Japanese culture....

. The same year he met Mao Zedong

Mao Zedong

Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...

 on a trip to China

People's Republic of China

China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...

. He also went to Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

 and Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 the following year, visiting Sartre

Jean-Paul Sartre

Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre was a French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic. He was one of the leading figures in 20th century French philosophy, particularly Marxism, and was one of the key figures in literary...

 in Paris.

Ōe now lives in Tokyo

Tokyo

, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

. He has three children; the eldest son, Hikari

Hikari Oe

is a Japanese composer who has autism. He is the son of Japanese author Kenzaburō Ōe.Hikari Ōe was born developmentally disabled. Doctors tried to convince his parents to let their son die, but they refused to do so. Even after an operation, Ōe remained visually impaired, developmentally delayed,...

, has been brain-damaged since his birth in 1963, and his disability has been a recurring motif in Ōe's writings since then.

In 2004, Ōe lent his name and support to those opposing proposed changes in the post-war Japanese constitution

Constitution of Japan

The is the fundamental law of Japan. It was enacted on 3 May, 1947 as a new constitution for postwar Japan.-Outline:The constitution provides for a parliamentary system of government and guarantees certain fundamental rights...

 of 1947. His views were seen as controversial by those who wanted Japan to abandon the constitutional impediment to "the threat or use of force as a means of settling international disputes," which is explicitly renounced in Article 9.

In 2005, two retired Japanese military officers sued Ōe for libel for his 1970 essay, Okinawa Notes, in which he had written that members of the Japanese military had coerced masses of Okinawan civilians into committing suicide during the Allied invasion of the island

Battle of Okinawa

The Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg, was fought on the Ryukyu Islands of Okinawa and was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific War of World War II. The 82-day-long battle lasted from early April until mid-June 1945...

 in 1945. In March 2008, the Osaka

Osaka

is a city in the Kansai region of Japan's main island of Honshu, a designated city under the Local Autonomy Law, the capital city of Osaka Prefecture and also the biggest part of Keihanshin area, which is represented by three major cities of Japan, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe...

 District Court dismissed all charges against Ōe. In this ruling, Judge Toshimasa Fukami stated, "The military was deeply involved in the mass suicide

Mass suicide

- Examples :Mass suicide sometimes occurs in religious or cultic settings. Defeated groups may resort to mass suicide rather than being captured. Suicide pacts are a form of mass suicide unconnected to cults or war that are sometimes planned or carried out by small groups of frustrated people...

s". In a news conference following the trial, Ōe said, "The judge accurately read my writing."

Oe has been involved with pacifist and anti-nuclear

Anti-nuclear

The anti-nuclear movement is a social movement that opposes the use of nuclear technologies. Many direct action groups, environmental groups, and professional organisations have identified themselves with the movement at the local, national, and international level...

 campaigns and written books about the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

During the final stages of World War II in 1945, the United States conducted two atomic bombings against the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, the first on August 6, 1945, and the second on August 9, 1945. These two events are the only use of nuclear weapons in war to date.For six months...

. Following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, he urged Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda

Yoshihiko Noda

is the current Prime Minister of Japan, a member of the Democratic Party of Japan , and a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet...

 to “halt plans to restart nuclear power plants and instead abandon nuclear energy”.

Writing

Ōe's output falls into a series of groups, successively dealing with different themes. He explained, shortly after learning that he'd been awarded the Nobel Prize, "I am writing about the dignity of human beings."

After his first student works set in his own university milieu, in the late 1950s he produced several works (such as 飼育 (Shiiku), known as 'The Catch', 'Prize Stock', or 'Prize Catch', made into a film by Nagisa Oshima) and Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids

Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids

Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids is a novel by Japanese author and Nobel laureate Kenzaburō Ōe. It is Ōe's first novel, written when he was 23 years old.-Plot:...

) focusing on young children living in Arcadia

Arcadia (utopia)

Arcadia refers to a vision of pastoralism and harmony with nature. The term is derived from the Greek province of the same name which dates to antiquity; the province's mountainous topography and sparse population of pastoralists later caused the word Arcadia to develop into a poetic byword for an...

n transformations of Ōe's own rural Shikoku

Shikoku

is the smallest and least populous of the four main islands of Japan, located south of Honshū and east of the island of Kyūshū. Its ancient names include Iyo-no-futana-shima , Iyo-shima , and Futana-shima...

 childhood. He later identified these child figures as belonging to the 'child god

Child (archetype)

The Child archetype, is an important Jungian archetype in Jungian psychology, first suggested by Swiss psychologist, Carl Jung. Recently, author Caroline Myss suggested Child, amongst four the Survival Archetypes , present in all of us...

' archetype

Archetype

An archetype is a universally understood symbol or term or pattern of behavior, a prototype upon which others are copied, patterned, or emulated...

 of Jung

Carl Jung

Carl Gustav Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist and the founder of Analytical Psychology. Jung is considered the first modern psychiatrist to view the human psyche as "by nature religious" and make it the focus of exploration. Jung is one of the best known researchers in the field of dream analysis and...

 and Kerényi

Karl Kerényi

Károly Kerényi was a Hungarian scholar in classical philology, one of the founders of modern studies in Greek mythology.- Hungary 1897–1943 :...

, which is characterised by abandonment, hermaphrodism, invincibility, and association with beginning and end. The first two characteristics are present in these early stories, while the latter two features come to the fore in the 'idiot boy' stories which appeared after the birth of Hikari.

Between 1958 and 1961 Ōe published a series of works incorporating sexual metaphors for the occupation of Japan. He summarised the common theme of these stories as "the relationship of a foreigner as the big power [Z], a Japanese who is more or less placed in a humiliating position [X], and, sandwiched between the two, the third party [Y] (sometimes a prostitute who caters only to foreigners or an interpreter)". In each of these works, the Japanese X is inactive, failing to take the initiative to resolve the situation and showing no psychological or spiritual development. The graphically sexual nature of this group of stories prompted a critical outcry; Ōe said of the culmination of the series Our Times, "I personally like this novel [because] I do not think I will ever write another novel which is filled only with sexual words."

Ōe's next phase moved away from sexual content, shifting this time toward the violent fringes of society. The works which he published between 1961 and 1964 are influenced by existentialism

Existentialism

Existentialism is a term applied to a school of 19th- and 20th-century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject—not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual...

 and picaresque literature, populated with more or less criminal rogues and anti-heroes whose position on the fringes of society allows them to make pointed criticisms of it. Ōe's admission that Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn

Huckleberry Finn

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a classic Mark Twain novel.Huckleberry Finn may also refer to:*Huckleberry Finn , a fictional character in the Adventures of Tom Sawyer...

 is his favorite book can be said to find a context in this period.

Hikari was a strong influence on Father, Where are you Going?, Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness, and The Day He Himself Shall Wipe My Tears Away

The Day He Himself Shall Wipe My Tears Away

is a novella by the Japanese author Oe Kenzaburo, first published in Japanese in 1972. It has been translated into English by John Nathan and was published in 1977 together with Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness, Prize Stock and Aghwee the Sky Monster...

, three novels which rework the same premise—the father of a disabled son attempts to recreate the life of his own father, who shut himself away and died. The protagonist's ignorance of his father is compared to his son's inability to understand him; the lack of information about his father's story makes the task impossible to complete, but capable of endless repetition, and, "repetition becomes the fabric of the stories". More generally, Ōe believes that novelists have always worked to spur the imagination of their readers.

Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness introduces 'Mori' as a name for the 'idiot-son' (Ōe's own term); 'Mori' means both 'to die' and 'idiocy' in Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

, and 'forest' in Japanese

Japanese language

is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...

. This association between the disabled boy and the forest recurs in later works such as The Waters Are Come in unto My Soul and M/T and the narrative about the marvels of the forest

M/T and the narrative about the marvels of the forest

is a novel by Japanese author Kenzaburō Ōe, published in 1986.Like most of Ōe's later work, it features his mentally disabled son Hikari , although most of the story is focused on the mythological and actual history of the small village of Ose, located on the Shikoku island...

.

The Nobel laureate believes that he is a very Japanese writer. He said, "I have always wanted to write about our country, our society and feelings about the contemporary scene. But there is a big difference between us and classic Japanese literature." In 1994, he explained that he was proud the Swedish Academy recognized the strength of modern Japanese literature and hoped the prize would encourage others.

Ōe's novella The Catch, about the treatment of an African-American soldier shot down during World War II by Japanese villagers, was made into a film by Nagisa Oshima

Nagisa Oshima

is a Japanese film director and screenwriter. After graduating from Kyoto University he was hired by Shochiku Ltd. and quickly progressed to directing his own movies, making his debut feature A Town of Love and Hope in 1959....

 and released in 1961.

According to Leo Lee Ou-fan writing in Muse

Muse (Hong Kong Magazine)

Muse is a bilingual Hong Kong-based multimedia publisher specializing in content related to Hong Kong's art and culture scene.. Until December 2010, Muse published an award-winning monthly arts and culture magazine...

, Ōe's latest works tend 'toward bolder experiments with the technique of "defamiliarization" by negotiating his narratives across several imaginary landscapes pertaining to painting, film, drama, music and architecture.'

Writing about his son, Hikari

Kenzaburō Ōe credits his son for influencing his literary career. Kenzaburō tried to give his son a "voice" through his writing. Several of Kenzaburō's books feature a character based on his son.

In Kenzaburō's 1964 book, A Personal Matter, the writer describes the pain involved in accepting his brain-damaged son into his life. Hikari figures prominately in many of the books singled out for praise by the Nobel committee:

Hikari's life is the core of the first book published after Kenzaburō was awarded the Nobel Prize. The 1996 book, A Healing Family, celebrates the small victories in Hikari's life.

Silence

Ōe did not write much during the nearly two years he was involved in a trial from 2006 to 2008. He is beginning a new novel, which The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

 reported would feature a character "based on his father", a staunch supporter of the imperial system who drowned in a flood during World War II. Another projected character is a contemporary young Japanese woman who “rejects everything about Japan” and in one act tries to destroy the imperial order." In this, as in so much else, Kenzaburo Ōe remains the master of an ambiguous Japanese expression, exploring that which is neither white nor black, but somewhere in between.

Honors

• Akutagawa Prize
  Akutagawa Prize
  The is a Japanese literary award presented semi-annually. It was established in 1935 by Kan Kikuchi, then-editor of Bungeishunjū magazine, in memory of author Ryūnosuke Akutagawa...
  
  , 1958.
• Shinchosha Literary Prize, 1964.
• Jun'ichirō Tanizaki Prize, 1967.
• Jiro Osaragi Prize (Asahi Shimbun
  Asahi Shimbun
  The is the second most circulated out of the five national newspapers in Japan. Its circulation, which was 7.96 million for its morning edition and 3.1 million for its evening edition as of June 2010, was second behind that of Yomiuri Shimbun...
  
  ), 1983.
• Noma Prize, 1973.
• Nobel Prize in Literature
  Nobel Prize in Literature
  Since 1901, the Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded annually to an author from any country who has, in the words from the will of Alfred Nobel, produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction"...
  
  , 1994.
• Order of Culture
  Order of Culture
  The is a Japanese order, established on February 11, 1937. The order has one class only, and may be awarded to men and women for contributions to Japan's art, literature or culture; recipients of the order also receive an annuity for life...
  
  , 1994 - refused.

Selected works

The number of Kenzaburo Ōe's works translated into English and other languages remains limited. His literary output includes many publications which are still only available in Japanese.

In a statistical overview derived from writings by and about Kenzaburo Ōe, OCLC

OCLC

OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc. is "a nonprofit, membership, computer library service and research organization dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the world’s information and reducing information costs"...

/WorldCat

WorldCat

WorldCat is a union catalog which itemizes the collections of 72,000 libraries in 170 countries and territories which participate in the Online Computer Library Center global cooperative...

 encompasses roughly 700 works in 1,500+ publications in 28 languages and 27,000+ library holdings.

List of books available in English

• Memeushiri Kouchi, 1958 - Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids
  Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids
  Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids is a novel by Japanese author and Nobel laureate Kenzaburō Ōe. It is Ōe's first novel, written when he was 23 years old.-Plot:...
  
   (trans. by Paul Mackintosh & Maki Sugiyama)
• Sebuntiin, 1961- Seventeen (Trans. by Luk Van Haute)
• Seiteki Ningen 1963 Sexual Humans, published as J (Trans. by Luk Van Haute)
• Kojinteki na taiken, 1964 - A Personal Matter
  A Personal Matter
  A Personal Matter is a novel by Japanese writer Kenzaburō Ōe . The novel is replete with imagery of death, decay and sex....
  
   (trans. by John Nathan)
• Hiroshima noto, 1965 - Hiroshima Notes (trans. by David L. Swain, Toshi Yonezawa)
• Man'en gannen no futtoboru, 1967 - The Silent Cry
  The Silent Cry
  The Silent Cry is a novel by the Nobel Prize winning Japanese author Kenzaburō Ōe, first published in Japanese in 1967 and awarded the Tanizaki Prize that year.-Plot summary:The novel tells the story of two brothers in the early 1960s: the narrator Mitsusaburo The Silent Cry (Japanese 万延元年のフットボール;...
  
   (trans. by John Bester)
• Warera no kyōki wo ikinobiru michi wo oshieyo, 1969 - Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness (1977)
• Mizukara waga namida wo nuguitamau hi, 1972 - The Day He Himself Shall Wipe My Tears Away
  The Day He Himself Shall Wipe My Tears Away
  is a novella by the Japanese author Oe Kenzaburo, first published in Japanese in 1972. It has been translated into English by John Nathan and was published in 1977 together with Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness, Prize Stock and Aghwee the Sky Monster...
  
   in Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness (1977)
• Pinchiranna chosho, 1976 - The Pinch Runner Memorandum
  The Pinch Runner Memorandum
  is a 1976 novel by a Japanese novelist Kenzaburō Ōe. The novel concerns such modern themes as violence and restlessnes of new age youth in the paranoia of the nuclear age.-Plot summary:...
  
   (trans. by Michiko N. Wilson)
• Atarashii hito yo mezame yo, 1983 - Rouse Up O Young Men of the New Age!
  Rouse Up O Young Men of the New Age!
  Rouse Up, O Young Men of the New Age! is a 1983 semi-autobiographical novel by Japanese author Kenzaburō Ōe, about his day-to-day life with his mentally handicapped son, Hikari and the effect that William Blake's poetry has had on both his life and work.-Plot summary:Ōe wishes to write a set...
  
   (trans. by John Nathan)
• Jinsei no shinseki, 1989 - An Echo of Heaven (trans. by Margaret Mitsutani)
• Shizuka-na seikatsu, 1990 - A Quiet Life (trans. by Kunioki Yanagishita & William Wetherall)
• Kaifuku suru kakozu, 1995 - A Healing Family (trans. by Stephen Snyder, ill. by Yukari Oe)
• Chugaeri, 1999 - Somersault (trans. by Philip Gabriel)
• Torikae ko (Chenjiringu), 2000 - The Changeling (trans. by Deborah Boehm)

Year	Japanese Title	English Title	Comments
1957	奇妙な仕事 Kimyou na shigoto	The Strange Work	His first short story
	死者の奢り Shisha no ogori	Lavish Are The Dead	Short story
	他人の足 Tanin no ashi	Someone Else's Feet	Short story
	飼育 Shiiku	Prize Stock	Short story awarded the Akutagawa prize
1958	見るまえに跳べ Miru mae ni tobe	Leap before you look	Short story
	芽むしり仔撃ち Memushiri kouchi	Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids is a novel by Japanese author and Nobel laureate Kenzaburō Ōe. It is Ōe's first novel, written when he was 23 years old.-Plot:...	His first novel
1961	セヴンティーン Sevuntīn	Seventeen	Short novel
1963	叫び声 Sakebigoe	Cry
	性的人間 Seiteki ningen	The sexual man (Also known as "J")	Short story
1964	空の怪物アグイー Sora no kaibutsu Aguī	Aghwee the Sky Monster Aghwee the Sky Monster Aghwee The Sky Monster is a short story/novel published in 1964 by the Nobel Prize winning Japanese writer Kenzaburō Ōe...	Short story
	個人的な体験 Kojinteki na taiken	A Personal Matter A Personal Matter A Personal Matter is a novel by Japanese writer Kenzaburō Ōe . The novel is replete with imagery of death, decay and sex....	Awarded the Shinchosha Literary Prize
1965	厳粛な綱渡り Genshuku na tsunawatari	The solemn rope-walking	Essay
	ヒロシマ・ノート Hiroshima nōto	Hiroshima Notes	Reportage
1967	万延元年のフットボール Man'en gan'nen no futtobōru	The Silent Cry The Silent Cry The Silent Cry is a novel by the Nobel Prize winning Japanese author Kenzaburō Ōe, first published in Japanese in 1967 and awarded the Tanizaki Prize that year.-Plot summary:The novel tells the story of two brothers in the early 1960s: the narrator Mitsusaburo The Silent Cry (Japanese 万延元年のフットボール;...	Awarded the Jun'ichirō Tanizaki prize
1968	持続する志 Jizoku suru kokorozashi	Continuous will	Essay
1969	われらの狂気を生き延びる道を教えよ Warera no kyōki wo ikinobiru michi wo oshieyo	Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness
1970	壊れものとしての人間 Kowaremono toshiteno ningen	Human being as a fragile article	Essay
	核時代の想像力 Kakujidai no sozouryoku	Imagination of the atomic age	Talk
	沖縄ノート Okinawa nōto	Okinawa Notes	Reportage
1972	鯨の死滅する日 Kujira no shimetsu suru hi	The day whales vanish	Essay
	みずから我が涙をぬぐいたまう日 Mizukara waga namida wo nuguitamau hi	The Day He Himself Shall Wipe My Tears Away The Day He Himself Shall Wipe My Tears Away is a novella by the Japanese author Oe Kenzaburo, first published in Japanese in 1972. It has been translated into English by John Nathan and was published in 1977 together with Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness, Prize Stock and Aghwee the Sky Monster...
1973	同時代としての戦後 Doujidai toshiteno sengo	The post-war times as contemporaries	Essay
	洪水はわが魂に及び Kōzui wa waga tamashii ni oyobi	The Flood invades my spirit	Awarded the Noma Literary Prize
1976	ピンチランナー調書 Pinchi ran'nā chōsho	The Pinch Runner Memorandum The Pinch Runner Memorandum is a 1976 novel by a Japanese novelist Kenzaburō Ōe. The novel concerns such modern themes as violence and restlessnes of new age youth in the paranoia of the nuclear age.-Plot summary:...
1979	同時代ゲーム Dojidai gemu	The Game of Contemporaneity The Game of Contemporaneity The Game of Contemporaneity or 'dojidai gemu' is a novel by Nobel prize winner Kenzaburo Oe, published in 1979.The Game of Contemporaneity was originally inspired on Diego Rivera’s mural 'Dream on a Sunday Afternoon in the Central Alameda'...
1980	(現代 ゲーム) Ume no chiri	Sometimes the Heart of the Turtle
1982	「雨の木」を聴く女たち Rein tsurī wo kiku on'natachi	Women listening to the "rain tree"	Awarded the Yomiuri Literary Prize
1983	新しい人よ眼ざめよ Atarashii hito yo, mezameyo	Rouse Up O Young Men of the New Age! Rouse Up O Young Men of the New Age! Rouse Up, O Young Men of the New Age! is a 1983 semi-autobiographical novel by Japanese author Kenzaburō Ōe, about his day-to-day life with his mentally handicapped son, Hikari and the effect that William Blake's poetry has had on both his life and work.-Plot summary:Ōe wishes to write a set...	Awarded the Jiro Osaragi prize
1984	いかに木を殺すか Ikani ki wo korosu ka	How do we kill the tree ?
1985	河馬に嚙まれる Kaba ni kamareru	Bitten by the hippopotamus	Awarded the Yasunari Kawabata Literary Prize
1986	M/Tと森のフシギの物語 M/T to mori no fushigi no monogatari	M/T and the Narrative About the Marvels of the Forest M/T and the narrative about the marvels of the forest is a novel by Japanese author Kenzaburō Ōe, published in 1986.Like most of Ōe's later work, it features his mentally disabled son Hikari , although most of the story is focused on the mythological and actual history of the small village of Ose, located on the Shikoku island...
1987	懐かしい年への手紙 Natsukashī tosi eno tegami	Letters for nostalgic years
1988	「最後の小説」 'Saigo no syousetu'	'The last novel'	Essay
	新しい文学のために Atarashii bungaku no tame ni	For the new literature	Essay
	キルプの軍団 Kirupu no gundan	The army of Quilp
1989	人生の親戚 Jinsei no shinseki	An Echo of Heaven	Awarded the Sei Ito Literary Prize
1990	治療塔 Chiryou tou	The tower of treatment
	静かな生活 Shizuka na seikatsu	A Quiet Life
1991	治療塔惑星 Chiryou tou wakusei	The tower of treatment and the planet
1992	僕が本当に若かった頃 Boku ga hontou ni wakakatta koro	The time that I was really young
1993	「救い主」が殴られるまで 'Sukuinushi' ga nagurareru made	Until the Savior Gets Socked	燃えあがる緑の木　第一部 Moeagaru midori no ki dai ichi bu The Flaming Green Tree Trilogy I
1994	揺れ動く (ヴァシレーション) Yureugoku (Vashirēshon)	Vacillating	燃えあがる緑の木　第二部 Moeagaru midori no ki dai ni bu The Flaming Green Tree Trilogy II
1995	大いなる日に Ōinaru hi ni	On the Great Day	燃えあがる緑の木　第三部 Moeagaru midori no ki dai san bu The Flaming Green Tree Trilogy III
	曖昧な日本の私 Aimai na Nihon no watashi	Japan, the Ambiguous, and Myself: The Nobel Prize Speech and Other Lectures	Talk
	恢復する家族 Kaifukusuru kazoku	A Healing Family	Essay with Yukari Oe
1999	宙返り Chūgaeri	Somersault
2000	取り替え子 (チェンジリング) Torikae ko (Chenjiringu)	The Changeling
2001	「自分の木」の下で 'Jibun no ki' no shita de	Under the 'tree of mine'	Essay with Yukari Oe
2002	憂い顔の童子 Ureigao no dōji	The Infant with a Melancholic Face
2003	「新しい人」の方へ 'Atarashii hito' no hou he	Toward the 'new man'	Essay with Yukari Oe
	二百年の子供 Nihyaku nen no kodomo	The children of 200 years
2005	さようなら、私の本よ! Sayōnara, watashi no hon yo!	Farewell, My Books!
2007	臈たしアナベル・リイ　総毛立ちつ身まかりつ Routashi Anaberu rī souke dachitu mimakaritu	The beautiful Annabel Lee was chilled and killed The beautiful Annabel Lee was chilled and killed The beautiful Annabel Lee was chilled and killed is a novel by Kenzaburō Ōe, published by Shinchosha on November 20, 2007....
2009	水死 sui shi	Death by Water

Nobel lecture

Ōe's Nobel lecture on December 7, 1994, entitled "Aimai na Nihon no watashi" (Japan, the Ambiguous and Myself) began with a commentary on his life as a child and how he was fascinated by The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Wonderful Adventures of Nils, which he used in his escapism from the terror of World War II. He described surviving various hardships in his life by using writing as an escape, "representing these sufferings of mine in the form of the novel.", and how his son Hikari similarly uses music as a method of expressing "the voice of a crying and dark soul".

Ōe dedicated a large portion of his speech to his opinion of Yasunari Kawabata

Yasunari Kawabata

was a Japanese short story writer and novelist whose spare, lyrical, subtly-shaded prose works won him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968, the first Japanese author to receive the award...

's acceptance speech, saying that the vagueness of Kawabata's title and his discussions of the poems written by medieval Zen monks were the inspiration for the title of his acceptance speech. Ōe, however, stated that rather than feeling spiritual affinity with his compatriot Kawabata, he felt more affinity with the Irish poet, William Butler Yeats

William Butler Yeats

William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and playwright, and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, in his later years he served as an Irish Senator for two terms...

, whose poetry had a significant effect on his writings and his life, even being a major inspiration for his trilogy, A Flaming Green Tree and the source of its title. Ōe stated, "Yeats is the writer in whose wake I would like to follow." He mentioned that based on his experiences of Japan, he cannot utter in unison with Kawabata the phrase "Japan, the Beautiful and Myself". Ōe also discussed the revival of militaristic feelings in Japan and the necessity for rejecting these feelings, and how Ōe desired to be of use in a cure and reconciliation of mankind.

External links

• Nobel Biography
• Nobel Laureate page
• Kenzaburō Ōe Prize
  Kenzaburo Oe Prize
  The Kenzaburō Ōe Prize is a literary award, and is sponsord by Kodansha .Established in 2006 in memory of two anniversaries:100th anniversary of Kodansha's establishment and the 50th anniversary of the writing life of Kenzaburō Ōe ....