ABE KOBO

   Abe Kobo was a writer, playwright, and inventor born in Tokyo and raised in Manchuria. His father was a physician, and although Abe graduated from Tokyo University with a medical degree, he never practiced medicine. He began publishing poetry, followed by his first novel, the story of an opium addict, Owarishi michi no shirube ni (The Road Sign at the End of the Street, 1948), that established his reputation. He worked as an avant-garde novelist and playwright, but it was not until he published Suna no onna (1962; tr. The Woman in the Dunes, 1964) that he won widespread international acclaim. The novel was turned into an award-winning film. In 1973, he founded an acting studio in Tokyo and continued to write and publish novels, including Tanin no kao (1959; tr. The Face of Another, 1966), Moetsukita chizu (1967; tr. The Ruined Map, 1969), and Hakobune sakura maru (1984; tr. The Ark Sakura, 1988). Abe’s surreal and often-nightmarish explorations of the individual in contemporary society earned him comparisons to Franz Kafka, and his influence extends well beyond Japan.

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