更新日：2010年7月5日

Yamaguchi Hitomi

Novelist and essayist Yamaguchi Hitomi was born in Tokyo in 1926. He worked himself through university and after graduating from Kokugakuin University, he joined the publisher, Kawade Shobo, but lost that job a few years later when the company went bankrupt. He then became a copywriter and editor of a wine magazine at Kotobukiya (the forerunner of Suntory). His colleagues in the publicity department were the writer, Kaiko Ken, and the artist, Yanagihara Ryuhei. In 1954, he began writing for the magazine, Gendai Hyoron (Contemporary Criticism), where his fellow critics were Okuno Takeo and Yoshimoto Takaaki.

Yamaguchi's novel, Eburimanshi no yuga na seikatsu (The Refined Lifestyle of Mr. Everyman) was serialized in the women's monthly magazine, Fujin Gaho, from 1961-2 and won him the Naoki Prize. This marked the start of his literary career in earnest. Among his best works are Majime ningen (A Serious Person), Izakaya Choji, Ketsu zoku (Blood Relations), and Kazoku (Family). Dansei jishin (Man Himself), his witty essays about the joys and sorrows of everyday life, was serialized in the weekly magazine, Shukan Shincho, from 1963 until his death in 1995-an amazing total of 1,614 episodes. His other works include Waga machi (Our Town), that depicted warmhearted neighborly love, and Nanjamonja, a humorous account of his travels around Japan.

Yamaguchi Hitomi lived in the house next door to Kawabata Yasunari in Hase for three years from 1945. After that, he moved to Tokyo. During his time in Kamakura, he attended the Kamakura Academia, where his teachers included the philosopher and science historian, Saegusa Hiroto, the tanka poet, Yoshino Hideo, and the novelist and poet, Takami Jun. Yamaguchi's book about Yoshino Hideo describes that period in great detail.