Background
She was the second daughter of Meiji period novelist Kōda Rohan. Kōda was born in Tokyo. At the age of five, she lost her mother, and later her younger sister and brother.
幸田 文
She was the second daughter of Meiji period novelist Kōda Rohan. Kōda was born in Tokyo. At the age of five, she lost her mother, and later her younger sister and brother.
She studied at the Tokyo Women"s School (Joshigakuin).
During World World War II, she helped secure her father"s job as described in Tama Aoki"s Koishikawa no Ie (小石川の家, The house in Koishikawa). Her first works, written when she was 43, were memoirs of life with her father. They include Chichi (父, My Father) and Konna koto (こんなこと, Such an affair).
Her subsequent short stories, novels, and essays explored women"s lives, family, and traditional culture.
The Writings of Kōda Aya, a Japanese Literary Daughter, Alan M. Tansman (transport), Yale University Press, 1993. Mirror: The Fiction and Essays of Koda Aya, Ann Sherif (transport), University of Hawaii Press, 1999.