Kōbō 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 books, while Columbia University Press offers Three Plays by Kōbō Abe.
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Abe was born in Kita, Tokyo and 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 also 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 1964 Cannes Film Festival.
Kenzaburō Ōe 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. Oe also said that Abe should have received the Nobel Prize in Literature that he himself had won, though the latter had been nominated many times. Critics likened his literary style to Alberto Moravia for its modernist influence.
A man involved with an agency that is developing methods to predict the future discovers a secret plan that will phase out "humans."
A short, one act play. A play that isn't easily understood, and many people believe that that is exactly how he wanted it.
In order to locate a timid woman's missing husband, a private investigator abandons his own identity.
A salaryman's life is taken over by a group claiming to be his family.
A man who lives inside a cardboard box loses hold of reality.
An ambulance takes away a man's wife in the middle of the night, in spite of the fact that nothing seemed to have been wrong with her. The man goes on an odyssey as he investigates her disappearance, becoming increasingly and bizarrely involved in the hospital where she was probably taken.
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.
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.
| Year | Japanese Title | English Title | Comments |
| 1948 | 終りし道の標に Owarishi michi no shirube ni |
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 Moetsukita 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 |
| 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 |
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| 1975 | 笑う月 Warau tsuki |
The laughing Moon |
| Year | Japanese Title | English Title | Comments |
| 1955 | 制服 Seifuku |
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 tsumi 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 Mihitsu 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 (Shin 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 shi no hanzai |
The crime of S.Karuma | ||
| 1979 | 仔象は死んだ Kozou wa shinda |
An elephant calf are dead |
| Year | Japanese Title | English Title | Comments |
| 1947 | 無名詩集 Mumei shishu |
Unknown poetry |