Saiichi Maruya

Maruya Saiichi (Japanese丸 谷 才 一, born August 27, 1925 in Tsuruoka, † 13 October 2012 in Tokyo ) was a Japanese writer.

Life

Saiichi was born the son of a doctor in the prefecture of Yamagata. He began studying English at the University of Tokyo, from which he graduated in 1950 with a thesis on James Joyce. From 1953 he was a lecturer at the Kokugakuin University in Tokyo. In addition to his academic career, he soon became known and appreciated by his translations of the works of Graham Greene. As a debut work applies Ehoba no kao o Sakete (エホバ の 顔 を 避け て), which appeared in 1960 as a book and, unusually, materially based for Japan on the Old Testament. The literary breakthrough came with Saiichi Sasamakura (笹 まくら, The bamboo pillows), which is greatly influenced by Joycens theory of the stream of consciousness.

For his work Toshi no nokori (1968, dt: "The rest of the year" ) he won the Akutagawa Prize, Tatta hitori no hanran for (1972, Germany: " The rebellion of an individual " ) the Tanizaki - Jun'ichirô price for Gotobain 1973 Yomiuri Prize for Literature and for Jueitan (树影 谭) 1988 Yasunari Kawabata Prize for Literature.

Saiichi died on 13 October 2012 in a Tokyo hospital from heart failure.

Works (selection)

In German translation appeared:

• Maruya Saiichi: The journalist from the Japanese by Sabine Mangold and Hayasaki Yukari. Frankfurt am Main: Insel Verlag, 1997.
• Tree shadow, from the Japanese by Tobias Cheung, Edition Nippon, Angkor Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2010 ISBN 978-3-936018-76-9