Hyakken Uchida
Hyakken Uchida (Japanese内 田 百 闲, also Hyakkien百 鬼 园; * May 29, 1889 in Okayama than Eizo Uchida (内 田 荣 造), † April 20, 1971 ) was a Japanese writer.
Life
Uchida Eizo was born as the only son in the family of a sake brewer in Okayama and experienced there, pampered by the grandmother, a very happy childhood. In 1910 he joined the Department of Germanic Imperial University of Tōkyō and joined the literary and intellectual circle around the famous author Natsume Soseki ( 1867-1916 ) on. As a writer of haiku poems he chooses the stage name Hyakken. In 1912 he married the sister of a friend. The course ended the budding German studies in 1914 with a dissertation on Hermann Sudermann's novel Mrs. concern. In the same year the daughter Tamino was born, a year earlier, the son Hisakichi was born. Hyakken now worked as a German teacher and got a job in 1920 at Hosei University, which he gave up in 1934. This was due to disputes within the Department of Germanic. His bitter experiences he processed in a novel titled Revolt of the bread eaters. Literary Hyakken was always present with its miscellany, travel reports and diary entries. He devoted himself to writing until the end of his long life. On April 20, 1971, he died at the age of eighty-one years.
In Japan, the author as a lovable eccentric is known, its recalcitrance and wasteful lifestyles are bearing motifs in Kurosawa Akira 1993 under the title Madadayo (まあだだよ) worried film version of his life. Already in the 1980s there was a Hyakken renaissance in Japan, today the author is considered favorite writers successful authors such as Hiromi Kawakami, in whose novel The sky is blue, the earth is white (German 2007) says of the author: " Uchida is really a writer of genius " (p. 78). To Hyakkens works are the short fiction anthologies Meido (冥 途, 1922; " From the Darkside " ), Ryojun Nyujōshiki (旅顺 入城 式, 1934; " Ceremonial entry in Port Arthur " ), Isōrō Soso (居 候 匇 々, 1936; " uprising the bread -eaters " ), Tokyo Nikki (东京 日记, 1938 " diary notes from Tōkyō " ), the short story Sarasate no ban (サラサーテ の 盤1948 " the Sarasate record " ), the travelogue Aho Ressha (阿 房 列车, 1952; " Uchida Hyakkens train ") and the late essay collections Neko ga Kuchi o Kiita (猫 が 口 を 利い た, 1970; " the cat has spoken " ) and Nichibotsu Heimon (日 没 闭门, 1976; " When the days are running out, remains the door closed "). The Japanese editions of the complete works of the author include over 30 volumes.
Literary work
Uchida is representative of modern Japanese literature, on the one hand to traditional forms ( haiku, zuihitsu ) oriented, on the other hand implements western tendencies. In the case of the Japanese Germanists are the adaptations of romance, but Hyakkens texts also show characteristics of literary movements after 1900. Characteristic of Hyakkens works (Japanese Genso bungaku ) can be assigned to the part of the literary fantasy, are his sense of humor, modern critical moments and a subtle representation of the psychology of the protagonists.
Hyakkens first book, Meido ( "Out of the Shadow Empire ") is a collection of eighteen eerie dream stories. The Wanderings of protagonists through a maze scary dreams are marked in each of the episodes of disorientation. Contours blurred spaces stretch from unusual, the sequence of brightness and darkness no longer obeys the laws of physics. The sensory impressions of the narrator in focus. In the last episode, " Shadow Empire ", the protagonist of the people can be seen in its immediate surroundings hardly, however, can clearly hear noises. His understanding caused by an insect scratchy tones on a paper wall. With the sound of Association of the wasp come together in the form of synaesthesia, the vision of the Father and a yearning melancholy reminder of the childhood. The eighteen stories in "Out of the Shadow Realm" form a cycle that begins with "Fireworks" ( Hanabi ) and " shadow realm " ( Meido ) ends. In many of the episodes is "I " on the way on a gloomy dam, where he met strange women and is of insidious magic foxes ( kitsune ) duped onto meanest. Threatening female figures, strange animals, weird kids and embarrassing situations determine the text of the cosmos Hyakkens " shadow realm " in which the childlike selfish and the Genießertum committed protagonist apparently must live through his purgatory. Within the modern Japanese literature take Hyakkens texts in terms of their originality and their fantastic quality a special position.