Kenzaburo Oe, Japan’s Nobel Laureate Poet & Novelist, Passes Away

Kenzaburo Oe, an internationally acclaimed author from Japan, has recently passed away at the age of 88. He was well-known for his novels that recounted his experiences as a child during World War II and as the father of a disabled son. His publisher, Kodansha Ltd., reported on Monday that his passing was due to old age and a private funeral had already been conducted by family members.

In 1994, Oe became the second Japanese author to be given the Nobel Prize in Literature. The Swedish Academy chose him for his incredible works of fiction which paint an intense picture of people’s struggles today with a mix of life and myth.

Oe was particularly inspired to write after he had a son who was born with mental disabilities in 1963.

In 1965, Kenzaburo Oe wrote a story called “A Personal Matter” about a dad who had to go through tough emotions because his son was born with bad brain problems. In some of his other works, Oe often included children with physical troubles and those characters grew as his son became older.

Hikari Oe was born with a brain condition that caused him to be mentally disabled. Although he has difficulty speaking and reading, he wrote amazing music which has been played and recorded on albums. Not long ago, Hikari became the only Japanese person since 1968 that won a Nobel Prize in Literature! Even though people felt proud of his accomplishment, his writings talk about difficult topics related to World War II in Japan when he was only 11 years old.

Growing up, Oe had a lot of unhappiness and it strongly affects the stories he wrote. He even said that writing was a way to get rid of his bad thoughts and emotions. One of his first pieces was called “The Catch”. It was about his childhood experiences with a pilot who crashed over his village during World War II. In 1958 this story won Japan’s Akutagawa prize for new writers, which was an honor to receive when Oe was still in college.

Oe, who was born on the 31st of January in 1935, was one of seven children from a town found on Japan’s southern island called Shikoku. At university, he studied literature and starting writing plays.

Experts noted that Oe was influenced by famous Western writers such as Dante, Poe, Rabelais, Balzac, Eliot and Sartre. Even with those influences though, Oe also added his own unique style to this work.

This year, lots of writing and other works that were written by hand were sent to the University of Tokyo to be kept in an archive.