Background
Fumiko Hayashi was born on December 31, 1903 in Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi, Japan. She was the daughter of Miyata Asataro and Hayashi Kiku.
1951
Yasunari Kawabata and other close friends at Hayashi's funeral.
Fumiko Hayashi at home in Ochiai 1940s.
(In these translations of Hayashi Fumiko's first poetry co...)
In these translations of Hayashi Fumiko's first poetry collection, I Saw a Pale Horse (Aouma wo mitari) and Selected Poems from Diary of a Vagabond (Hōrōki), Fumiko's literary origins are colorfully revealed. Little known in the west, these early poetic texts focus on Fumiko's unconventional early life, and her construction of a female subject that would challenge, with gusto and panache, accepted notions not only of class, family, and gender but also of female poetic practice.
https://www.amazon.com/Horse-Selected-Poems-Vagabond-Cornell/dp/1885445660/?tag=2022091-20
1930
(In this groundbreaking novel, Fumiko Hayashi tells the po...)
In this groundbreaking novel, Fumiko Hayashi tells the powerful story of tormented love and one woman's struggle to navigate the cruel realities of postwar Japan. The novel's characters, particularly its resilient heroine Koda Yukiko, find themselves trapped in their own drifting, unable to break out of the morass of indecisiveness. Set in the years during and after World War II, their lives and damaged psyches reflect the confusion of the times in which they live.
https://www.amazon.com/Floating-Clouds-Japanese-Studies-Hayashi/dp/0231136293/?tag=2022091-20
1951
(The early postwar novels of Hayashi Fumiko.)
The early postwar novels of Hayashi Fumiko.
https://www.amazon.com/Yumis-Postwar-Japanese-Literature-Chrysanthemum/dp/1517080991/?tag=2022091-20
(A pet dog once had a wonderful home on the scenic Lake No...)
A pet dog once had a wonderful home on the scenic Lake Nojiri in Japan. His best friend and master left one day, but his unconditional love for his master never died.
https://www.amazon.com/Beautiful-Dog-Fumiko-Hayashi-ebook/dp/B01IZ1OAGK/?tag=2022091-20
林 芙美子
novelist screenwriter writer poet
Fumiko Hayashi was born on December 31, 1903 in Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi, Japan. She was the daughter of Miyata Asataro and Hayashi Kiku.
Fumiko Hayashi graduated from Onomichi Public Girls High School in 1922.
Fumiko Hayashi moved to Tokyo after finishing high school. She was a novelist, short story writer, journalist, essayist, and poet. Additionally, she was a war correspondent for the magazine Mainichi and served as a member of the Japanese press corps during World War II.
One of her best-known works was "Hōrōki" (translated into English as "Vagabond's Song" or "Diary of a Vagabond"), which was adapted into the anime "Wandering Days". Another was her late novel "Ukigumo" ("Floating Clouds", 1951), which was made into a movie by Mikio Naruse in 1955.
Naruse filmed several of her books, and also directed a biographical film about her in 1962 - "Hōrōki" ("A Wanderer's Notebook").
Hayashi was later to face criticism for accepting sponsored-trips by the Japanese military government to occupied China, from where she reported positively on Japanese administration.
In 1942-1943, as part of a larger group of women writers, she also traveled to Southeast Asia, spending around half a year, primarily in Java and Sumatra. Some of her activities were reported in both the local Indonesian presses, as well as in the Japanese metropole.
(In these translations of Hayashi Fumiko's first poetry co...)
1930(In this groundbreaking novel, Fumiko Hayashi tells the po...)
1951(A pet dog once had a wonderful home on the scenic Lake No...)
(The early postwar novels of Hayashi Fumiko.)
After moving to Tokyo in 1922 with a lover, Fumiko Hayashi lived with several men until settling into marriage with the painter Rokubin Tezuka, a sculptor, in 1926. She had an adopted son.