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Kiku Amino

あみの きく

Amino Kiku

Aliases: 相原菊子
Pen Names: Kikuko Aihara（Married name / alternate name）

Profile

Gender
Female
Born
1900-01-16 （Tanimachi, Azabu, Tokyo, Japan (now Roppongi 1-2-chome)）
Died
1978-05-15 （Tokyo Kinrōsha Yoyogi Hospital, Sendagaya, Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan） age 78
Nationality
Japanese
Languages
Japanese, English, Russian
Residence History
Tanimachi, Azabu, Tokyo (now Roppongi 1-2-chome), Japan → Akasaka Omote-machi, Tokyo, Japan → Kojimachi Sanbanchō (now Kudanshita area), Tokyo, Japan → Nara (stayed at Naoya Shiga's residence), Japan → Fengtian (Mukden), Manchuria (lived with husband Aihara) → Sendagaya, Shibuya, Tokyo (Naoi Apartment), Japan (moved 1971)

Career

Occupations
Novelist, Translator, Essayist, Teacher
Active Years
1920-1978
Affiliations
Japan Art Academy
Memberships
Member of the Japan Art Academy
Influenced By
Naoya Shiga, Saneatsu Mushakoji, Kōsaku Takii

Education

Japan Women's University
Department of English Literature
Period: 1916-1920
Year of Graduation: 1920
Country: Japan
Wrote the short piece "February" while enrolled; self-published debut volume.
Chiyoda Girls' Higher School (former)
Country: Japan
Attended girls' secondary school before entering Japan Women's University.
Waseda University (auditor)
Russian literature (auditor)
Period: 1922-1924
Country: Japan
Studied as an auditor in the Russian literature department for ~2 years.

Awards

Women's Literary Persons Award
1948
Organization: Women's Literary Persons Award
Result: 受賞
Women's Literary Award
1962
Work: Sakura no Hana (Cherry Blossoms)
Organization: Women's Literary Award
Result: 受賞
Arts Festival (Minister of Education Award)
1962
Work: Sakura no Hana (Cherry Blossoms)
Organization: Ministry of Education (Arts Festival)
Result: 受賞
Yomiuri Literature Prize
1968
Work: Ichigo ichie (Once-in-a-Lifetime Meeting)
Organization: Yomiuri Shimbun
Result: 受賞
Japan Art Academy Prize
1968
Organization: Japan Art Academy
Result: 受賞

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Autumn

1921 Short stories (self-published)

A self-published collection including stories written while a student; contains autobiographical elements such as complex feelings toward her mother.

mother-daughter relationshipsfamilypersonal suffering

Mitsuko

1926 Novel (I-novel / autobiographical fiction)

One of the works that brought her to literary attention after being noticed by Naoya Shiga; an I-novel-style piece drawing on personal experiences such as the death of a stepmother.

I-novelfamily bereavementmemory and loss

On the Train

1940 Short / medium-length fiction

A work published upon her return to writing after a hiatus in the late 1930s; regarded as a comeback piece.

fragments of everyday lifewomen's inner life

Sakura no Hana (Cherry Blossoms)

1961 Novel

A novel dealing with conflict with a half-sister; won the Arts Festival (Minister of Education Award) and the Women's Literary Award in 1962.

sibling and family conflictsmemory and reckoning with the past

Swaying Reeds

1964 Novel

One of her notable postwar works. Written in an autobiographical tone, it explores human interiority.

lonelinessreminiscenceaging

Ichigo ichie (Once-in-a-Lifetime Meeting)

1967 Fiction / Short story collection

A collection including pieces commemorating the 8th Ichikawa Danjūrō; won the Yomiuri Literature Prize in 1968.

memorial and mourningtheatre/performing arts and humanity

Bibliography

  • Autumn
  • Mitsuko
  • On the Train
  • Young Days
  • Wives
  • Snowy Mountain
  • Seaside
  • Children of the Town
  • Bouquet
  • On Happiness
  • Sakura no Hana (Cherry Blossoms)
  • Essays: Winter Flowers
  • Swaying Reeds
  • Ichigo ichie (Once-in-a-Lifetime Meeting)
  • White Java Sparrow
  • Snow of the Distant Mountain
  • Years of the Heart
  • Clear Snow: Memories of Naoya Shiga
  • A Sunlit Room
  • Occasional Flowers
  • Collected Works of Kiku Amino (3 vols.)

Translations by Author

  • Elizabeth Gaskell, "The Life of Charlotte Brontë" (translation)
  • Selections of Russian Tales (abridged/adapted for middle-school readers)
  • William Hudson, "The Boy Who Chased Dreams" (translation)
  • Vitaly Bianchi, "The Little Mouse Peek" (translation)
  • Samuil Marshak, "The Forest Is Alive" (translation)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
weighty, dense proseautobiographical I-novel styleessayistic narration
Recurring Motifs
family conflict (stepmothers, half-sisters)illness and deathreminiscence and memorywomen's inner life

Health

  • Peritonitis and pleurisy
    13歳ごろ
    Required long convalescence and affected schooling
  • Severe fungal infection of the hands (described as 'tinea' in sources)
    戦中〜戦後期（詳細不明）
    Reportedly affected manual tasks and daily life
  • Rheumatism (rheumatoid arthritis, likely)
    中年以降
    Chronic pain and limitations in movement
  • Kidney failure
    1978（死因）
    Died of kidney failure on 1978-05-15

Legacy

Kiku Amino was an I-novel-style writer active from the late Taishō into the Shōwa era, praised for her weighty prose in the postwar period. She received multiple literary awards and was appointed a Member of the Japan Art Academy in 1969. She also left translations of foreign children's literature and essays, securing her standing as an important female writer.

Museums

  • Chiyoda City Yobanchō Library (plaque marking former residence of Kiku Amino) 1 Yobanchō, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo (site of former residence)

Academic Societies

  • Japan Art Academy

Archives

  • Shinshu University Library (holds letters of Kiku Amino)
  • Chiyoda City Yobanchō Library (plaque marking former residence)

Trivia

  • Also known as Kikuko Aihara (married name)
  • Discovered by Naoya Shiga and debuted with "Mitsuko"
  • Lived in Fengtian (Mukden), Manchuria, during her marriage
  • Won the Arts Festival (Minister of Education Award) and the Women's Literary Award for "Sakura no Hana" in 1962
  • Won the Yomiuri Literature Prize and the Japan Art Academy Prize in 1968; became a member of the Japan Art Academy in 1969
  • Buried at Aoyama Cemetery
  • A plaque marking her former residence is installed at the Chiyoda City Yobanchō Library