was 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...

 novelist and poet.

Early life

Sakae Tsuboi was born in the village of Sakate (now part of the town of Shōdoshima

Shodoshima, Kagawa

is a town located in Shōzu District, Kagawa, Japan on Shodoshima, an island in the Seto Inland Sea. The town was formed on March 21, 2006 from the merger of the towns of Ikeda and Uchinomi, both from Shōzu District....

) in Kagawa Prefecture

Kagawa Prefecture

is a prefecture of Japan located on Shikoku island. The capital is Takamatsu.- History :Kagawa was formerly known as Sanuki Province.For a brief period between August 1876 and December 1888, Kagawa was made a part of Ehime Prefecture.-Battle of Yashima:...

, the fifth daughter of soy sauce

Soy sauce

Soy sauce is a condiment produced by fermenting soybeans with Aspergillus oryzae or Aspergillus sojae molds, along with water and salt...

 barrel maker, Tokichi Iwai. Despite the bankruptcy of her father's employer, and the consequent worsening of her family's economic situation, she was still able to complete eight years of schooling, before going on to work in the post office and town hall. In 1925, at the age of 26, she went to Tokyo to marry Shigeji Tsuboi

Shigeji Tsuboi

was an influential Japanese poet of the modern era of Japanese literature.-History:Tsuboi was born on the island of Shōdoshima and studied briefly at Waseda University in Tokyo, but he never graduated...

.

Career

After the publication of her debut work Daikon no Ha (Radish Leaves) in 1938, she wrote prolifically, winning the Minister of Education Award for Fine Arts among other prizes. In 1954 the director Keisuke Kinoshita

Keisuke Kinoshita

was a Japanese film director.Although lesser known internationally than his fellow filmmakers such as Akira Kurosawa , Kenji Mizoguchi and Yasujirō Ozu , Keisuke Kinoshita was nonetheless a household figure at home beloved by audience and critics alike, especially in the forties through the sixties...

 made a film adaptation, starring Hideko Takamine

Hideko Takamine

was a Japanese actress who began as a child actor and maintained her fame in a career that spanned nine decades.-Life and career:Born in Hakodate, Hokkaidō, Japan, Takamine's first role was in the Shochiku studio's 1929 film Mother , which brought her tremendous popularity as a child actor. Soon...

, of her 1952 novel, Nijushi no Hitomi (Twenty-Four Eyes

Twenty-Four Eyes

, based on the novel by Sakae Tsuboi, is a 1954 Japanese film directed by Keisuke Kinoshita.-Synopsis:The movie follows the career of a schoolteacher named Ōishi in Shōdoshima during the rise and fall of Japanese ultra-nationalism in the beginning of the Shōwa period...

), and Shodoshima

Shodoshima

is an island located in the Inland Sea of Japan. The name means literally "Island of Small Beans". There are two towns on the island: Tonoshō and Shōdoshima, comprising the district of Shōzu.The island is famous for its stages of Twenty-Four Eyes...

 became a household name in Japan. In 1967, she was made an honorary citizen of Uchinomi, Kagawa

Uchinomi, Kagawa

Uchinomi was a town located in Shōzu District, Kagawa, Japan on Shodoshima, an island in the Inland Sea.On March 21, 2006 Uchinomi was merged with the town of Ikeda, also from Shōzu District, to form the new town of Shōdoshima and no longer exists as an independent municipality.As of 2003, the...

 before dying the same year at the age of 67.

Sakae Tsuboi Prize

In 1979, to honour Tsuboi's work, Kagawa Prefecture established the Sakae Tsuboi Prize for children from the prefecture.

Important works

• Daikon no Ha (Radish Leaves)
• Kaki no Ki no Aru Ie (The House with the Persimmon Tree)
• Haha no Nai Ko to Ko no Nai Haha to (The Motherless Children and the Childless Mother)
• Sakamichi (The Slope)
• Nijushi no Hitomi (Twenty-Four Eyes) - (the only work readily available in English translation)
• Kaze (The Wind)
• Tsukiyo no Kasa (Umbrella on a Moonlit Night)