更新日：2010年7月5日

Kawakami Kikuko

Kawakami Kikuko (nee Shinoda) was born in Shizuoka Prefecture in 1904. She graduated from Heijo Higher Girls' School and from the vocational course at Yamawaki Higher Girls’ School.

In 1924 she accompanied her husband to the Korean peninsula where they lived until 1931. In 1927, the Osaka Asahi Shimbun awarded her a prize for her novel, ARU MINIKUKI BIGANJUTSU-SHI (An ugly beautician), and serialized it in the paper. Other prizewinners that year were Hirabayashi Taiko and Ishikawa Tatsuzo. In 1936, the writers Hayashi Fusao and Kawabata Yasunari encouraged Kawakami to publish FUYUBI NO KAGE (Shadow of a winter’s day), SAIGETSU (Time and tide), and METSUBO NO MON (Gate of ruin) in Bungakukai, a major literary monthly. Among the three, METSUBO NO MON was awarded the eleventh Bungakukai Prize. Following this recognition, Kawakami wrote a number of novels in quick succession, among them HIKARI HONOKANARI (Faint light), BIKO (Dim light), and HANAZONO NO SHOSOKU, published chiefly in Bungakukai. In an objective and unemotional style, she depicted the oppressive life under the country's ever-spreading militarism.

After World WarⅡ, Kawakami gradually withdrew from literary activity, but in her later years published KAGERO NO BANKA (Elegy on shimmering air). Kawakami also wrote poetry and in her early years studied under Yosano Akiko. Her tanka (31-syllable poems) were published in Myojo and Tohaku.

Her connection with Kamakura began in 1931 upon her return from Korea with her husband following his retirement. It was here in Kamakura that she elected to receive medical treatment for an illness contracted in Korea, first renting a house in Takumagayatsu, then in the following year purchasing the house next door where she lived until her death in 1985 at the age of 80.