Kobo Abe

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Kobo Abe (安部公房 Abe Kōbō?), pseudonym of Kimifusa Abe (Abe Kimifusa, March 7, 1924 - January 22, 1993) was a Japanese writer, playwright, photographer and inventor.

His name is romanized as Kobo Abe in Vintage International's English-language editions of his book, while Columbia University Press offers Three Plays by Kōbō Abe.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Abe was born in Kita, Tokyo, grew up in Mukden (now Shen-yang) in Manchuria. His father was a physician who taught at the medical college. Abe returned to Japan in 1941 and began studies at Tokyo Imperial University in 1943. He graduated in 1948 with a medical degree, on the condition that he would not practice. He was first published as a poet with Mumei Shishu ("Poems of an unknown poet") in 1947. The next year he published his first novel, Owarishi michi no shirube ni ("The Road Sign at the End of the Street") which established his reputation. He worked as an avant-garde novelist and playwright, but it was not until he published The Woman in the Dunes in 1962 that he won widespread international acclaim.

In the 1960s, he collaborated with Japanese director Hiroshi Teshigahara in adapting to film The Pitfall, Woman in the Dunes, The Face of Another and The Ruined Map.

In 1973 he founded an acting studio in Tokyo, where he trained performers in his innovative performance methods and directed plays.

Abe's surreal and often nightmarish explorations of the individual in contemporary society earned him comparisons to Kafka and his influence extended well beyond Japan, particularly with the success of Woman in the Dunes at the Cannes Film Festival.

Kenzaburo Oe was one of Abe's friends. Oe said he thinks Abe's novels are beyond his work and are as great as Kafka's and Faulkner's.

[edit] Summaries of selected works

[edit] The Ruined Map (1964)

In order to locate a timid woman's missing husband, a private investigator abandons his own identity.

[edit] The Ark Sakura (1984)

Fearing imminent nuclear holocaust, an obese survivalist named "Mole" builds a sprawling, technologically well-equipped shelter out of an abandoned quarry. Challenges mount as the insect salesman and pair of shills that he has recruited as crew members start making demands and an elderly brigade of street-sweepers threatens invasion.

[edit] Kangaroo Notebook (1991)

After seeking treatment for a patch of radish sprouts discovered growing on his legs, an office supply worker is taken on a journey through various surreal locales by a hospital bed with a mind of its own.

[edit] List of books available in English

[edit] Novels

Year Japanese Title English Title Comments
1948 終りし道の標に
Owarisi mitino sirubeni		 At the Guidepost at the End of the Road
1954 飢餓同盟
Kiga doumei		 Starving Unions
1957 けものたちは故郷をめざす
Kemono tachi wa kokyou wo mezasu		 Animals are Going to their Home
1959 第四間氷期
Dai yon kan pyouki		 Inter Ice Age IV
1960 石の眼
Ishi no me		 Stony Eyes
1962 砂の女
Suna no onna		 Woman in the Dunes
1964 他人の顔
Tanin no kao		 The Face of Another
1965 榎本武揚
Enomoto takeaki		 Takeaki Enomoto
1967 燃えつきた地図
Moetukita chizu		 The Ruined Map
1973 箱男
Hako otoko		 The Box Man
1977 密会
Mikkai		 Secret Rendezvous
1984 方舟さくら丸
Hakobume sakura maru		 The Ark Sakura
1991 カンガルー・ノート
Kangaruu noto		 Kangaroo Notebook
1994 飛ぶ男
Tobu otoko		 The Flying Man Incomplete

[edit] Collected short stories

Year Japanese Title English Title Comments
1951 壁
Kabe		 The wall
1952 飢えた皮膚
Ueta hihu		 The starving skin
闖入者
Chinnyu sha		 Intruders
1956 R62号の発明
R62 gou no hatumei		 Inventions by R62
1964 無関係な死
Mukankei na shi		 The unrelated death
1967 人間そっくり
Ningen sokkuri		 The double of human being
1968 夢の逃亡
Yume no toubou
1975 笑う月
Warau tuki		 The laughing Moon

[edit] Plays

Year Japanese Title English Title Comments
1955 制服
Seihuku		 Uniforms
どれい狩り
Dorei gari		 Slave huntting
快速船
Kaisoku sen		 The speedy ship
1958 幽霊はここにいる
Yuurei wa koko ni iru		 Here is a ghost
1965 おまえにも罪がある
Omae nimo tumi ga aru		 You are also guilty
1967 友達
Tomodachi		 Friends
榎本武揚
Enomoto takeaki		 Takeaki Enomoto
1969 棒になった男
Bou ni natta otoko		 The man who turned into a stick
1971 未必の故意
Mihitu no koi		 Willful negligence
ガイド・ブック
Gaido bukku		 Guide Book
1973 愛の眼鏡は色ガラス
Ai no megane wa iro garasu		 Loving glasses are colored ones
1974 緑色のストッキング
Midori iro no sutokkingu		 Green Stockings
1975 ウエー（新どれい狩り）
Uē (Sin dorei gari)		 OOay(Slave hunting, new version )
1976 案内人GUIDE BOOK II
Annai nin		 The guide man, GUIDE BOOK II
1978 人さらい
Hito sarai		 Kidnap
S・カルマ氏の犯罪
S・Karuma si no hanzai		 The crime of S.Karuma
1979 仔象は死んだ
Kozou wa sinda		 An elephant calf are dead

[edit] Poetry

Year Japanese Title English Title Comments
1947 無名詩集
Mumei sishu		 Unknown poetry

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  • Abe Kobo: an Exploration of his Prose, Drama, and Theatre by Timothy Iles. Published by EPAP, 2000.

[edit] Prizes

[edit] External links