Kiku Amino

Kiku Amino (網野 菊, Amino Kiku, January 16, 1900 - May 15, 1978) was a Japanese author and translator of English and Russian literature.

Amino was born in Azabu Mamiana-cho and raised in Akasaka, Tokyo, where her father was a well-to-do sadler. Her mother left when Amino was six, after which she had three stepmothers. She graduated from the Japan Women's University in 1920 with a degree in English, then worked as a part-time assistant editor at a magazine, and from 1921-1926 a substitute English teacher at the university. In 1921 she published a self-financed collection of stories entitled Aki (Autumn), and in 1923 met author Shiga Naoya whose disciple she became. She married in 1930, living in Hooten, Manchuria, from 1930-1938, but divorced in 1936. She did not publish while married, but made a comeback with a collection of short stories called Kisha no nakade (On the Train) in 1940.

She was a member of the Japan Art Academy and received the 1947 Women's Literature Prize for Kin no kan (A Golden Coffin), and the 1967 Yomiuri Prize and Japan Academy of the Arts prize for her short story Ichigo ichie (Once in a Lifetime). She is buried in Aoyama Reien, 2-32-2 Minami Aoyama, where Shiga Naoya is also buried.

References

• Sachiko Shibata Schierbeck and Marlene R. Edelstein, Japanese women novelists in the 20th century: 104 biographies, 1900-1993, Museum Tusculanum Press, 1994, pages 73–76. ISBN 978-87-7289-268-9.
• Donald Keene, Dawn to the West: Japanese literature of the modern era, fiction, Volume 1, 2nd edition, Columbia University Press, 1998, pages 528-531. ISBN 978-0-231-11434-9.
• Japanese Wikipedia article
• Prominent People of Minato City (with photo)