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47-524: Yoshimoto is the father of Japanese writer Banana Yoshimoto and of cartoonist Yoiko Haruno . Yoshimoto was born in 1924, in Tsukishima, Tokyo, the third son of family of boatmakers who managed a small boatyard. Shortly before his birth, his family had moved to Tokyo from Amakusa, Kumamoto prefecture, on the southern island of Kyushu . In his teens, Yoshimoto came under the influence of literature while receiving private tutoring, and began to write poetry. He

94-509: A blistering postmortem of the protests entitled “The End of Fictions” ( Gisei no shūen ), in which he asserted that the anti-treaty protests had exposed not only the "fictions" of the ruling conservatives, but also the "fictions" of established left-wing political organizations and mainstream left-leaning intellectuals. Yoshimoto concluded that the only path forward was to reject the oppression of existence and pursue absolute individual autonomy ( jiritsusei ). In September 1961, Yoshimoto co-founded

141-531: A conference at the Ryogoku Auditorium on September 30 to negotiate between students and authorities. The rally was attended by as many as 35,000 students. After 12 hours of negotiations, the authorities accepted the demands of the students, leading to the resignation of all University directors involved. However, following the negotiations, Japanese Prime Minister Eisaku Sato declared that "establishing relations with popular gangs deviate from common sense", and

188-585: A cycle of violence that would last into the late-1960s. In 1962, student unrest at Waseda University over the building of a new student hall led to the founding of the Waseda Zenkyōtō, a precursor group to other Zenkyōtō. Chaired by Akihiko Oguchi, a member of the Shaseido Kaiho-ha , the Waseda Zenkyōtō turned eventually from the problem of the student hall to that of a planned rise in tuition fees. The Zenkyōtō students took action, leading to fighting within

235-517: A degree in Electrochemistry. During his studies, he became friends with literary critic Takeo Okuno . After graduation, Yoshimoto moved to industry, became a research student in 1950, and in 1952 took a position at Tokyo Ink Manufacturing Company Ltd. He continued his poetic output, writing his first representative works, Dialogue with Particularity and Ten Works for a Change in Position , and won

282-481: A life full of dreams. She named American author Stephen King as one of her first major influences and drew inspiration from his non-horror stories. As her writing progressed, she was further influenced by Truman Capote and Isaac Bashevis Singer . Also manga artist Yumiko Ōshima was an inspiration. In 1987, Yoshimoto won the Kaien Newcomer Writers Prize, for Kitchen . In 1988, she was awarded

329-618: A major in literature . While there, she adopted the pseudonym "Banana", after her love of banana flowers , a name she recognizes as both "cute" and "purposefully androgynous." Yoshimoto keeps her personal life guarded and reveals little about her certified rolfing practitioner husband, Hiroyoshi Tahata , or son (born in 2003). Each day she takes half an hour to write at her computer, and she says, "I tend to feel guilty because I write these stories almost for fun." Between 2008 and 2010, she maintained an online journal for English-speaking fans. Yoshimoto began her writing career while working as

376-548: A truck, he gave an impromptu lecture encouraging the students to continue their resistance. Thereafter a violent clash with police occurred, resulting in the death of Tokyo University student Michiko Kanba . In the aftermath, Yoshimoto was arrested and interrogated for three days by the police, before being released without charges. The failure of the anti-treaty movement to stop the treaty from being ratified left Yoshimoto angry and disillusioned with "Old Left"-style political activism. In October 1960, he published an essay offering

423-508: A waitress at a golf club restaurant in 1987. Her debut work, Kitchen (1988), had over 60 printings in Japan alone. There have been two film adaptations: a Japanese TV movie and a more widely released version titled Wo ai chu fang , produced in Hong Kong by Ho Yim in 1997. In November 1987, Yoshimoto won the 6th Kaien Newcomer Writers Prize for Kitchen ; in 1988, the novel was nominated for

470-510: Is the pen name of Japanese writer Mahoko Yoshimoto ( 吉本 真秀子 , Yoshimoto Mahoko ) . From 2002 to 2015, she wrote her name in hiragana ( よしもと ばなな ). Yoshimoto was born in Tokyo on July 24, 1964, and grew up in a progressive family. Her father was the poet and critic Takaaki Yoshimoto , and her sister, Haruno Yoiko  [ ja ] , is a well-known cartoonist in Japan. Yoshimoto graduated from Nihon University 's College of Art with

517-619: The Arechi prize for new poets. He published a work of criticism on Takamura Kōtarō . Yoshimoto, who had pursued a theory of war responsibility of the literati, supported the Anpo Protests against the 1960 revision of the US-Japan Security Treaty as an expression of the contradictions of the postwar order fifteen years after the end of the war. Strongly opposing the new treaty, he became an "enthusiastic supporter" and "patron saint" of

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564-715: The Mishima Yukio Prize , and in 1989, it received the 39th Minister of Education's Art Encouragement Prize for New Artists. In 1988 (January), she also won the 16th Izumi Kyōka Prize for Literature , for the novella Moonlight Shadow , which is included in most editions of Kitchen . Another one of her novels, Goodbye Tsugumi (1989), received mixed reviews and was made into a 1990 movie directed by Jun Ichikawa . Her works include twelve novels and seven collections of essays (including Pineapple Pudding and Song From Banana ) which have together sold over six million copies worldwide. Her themes include love and friendship,

611-700: The Zengakuren student activists. Yoshimoto was invited to give speeches at Zengakuren meetings in December 1959 and January 1960, and he joined the student activists in a sit-in at Shinagawa Station in Tokyo as part of a nationwide general strike against the Treaty on June 4, 1960. On June 15, 1960, at the climax of the protests, he joined the Zengakuren students in crashing into the National Diet compound. Leaping up on top of

658-801: The 10th Bunkamura Deux Magots Literary Prize, for Furin to Nambei , a collection of stories set in South America. Outside Japan, she has been awarded prizes in Italy: the Scanno Literary Prize in 1993, the Fendissime Literary Prize in 1996, the Literary Prize Maschera d'Argento in 1999, and the Capri Award in 2011. The Lake was longlisted for the 2011 Man Asian Literary Prize . Titles between parentheses are rough translations if

705-446: The 16th Izumi Kyōka Prize for Literature , for Moonlight Shadow . The following year, she earned two more accolades: the 39th Minister of Education's Art Encouragement Prize for New Artists (for the fiscal year of 1988), for Kitchen and Utakata/Sanctuary , and the 2nd Yamamoto Shūgorō Prize , for Goodbye Tsugumi . In 1995, she won the 5th Murasaki Shikibu Prize for Amrita , her first full-length novel. And in 2000, she received

752-445: The 1960s and 1970s for the Zengakuren, Zenkyoto , and other 'non-sect' New Leftists. He was regarded as required reading for participants in the 1968–69 Japanese university protests . This was in spite of his remaining aloof from, and taking a critical stance toward, the student protests of the later 1960s, a stance which was a consequence of his aversion to sectarianism and party-driven movements. Yoshimoto eventually concluded that even

799-632: The 1960s and 1970s in Japan. He published many dialogues with overseas intellectuals visiting Japan, such as Michel Foucault , Félix Guattari , Ivan Illich , and Jean Baudrillard . Yoshimoto, who did not hold an academic pedigree, supported intellectuals who have devoted themselves to solitary study. He has also engaged in a number of belligerent exchanges. Famous among these have been his dispute with Kiyoteru Hanada , with New Testament scholar Kenzō Tagawa, and with his former friend and critic Yutaka Haniya . Banana Yoshimoto Banana Yoshimoto ( 吉本 ばなな , Yoshimoto Banana , born 24 July 1964 )

846-570: The 1990s, after characterizing the yoga practices of Asahara Shoko of Aum Shinrikyo as expressing the inner core of early Buddhist asceticism, Yoshimoto was criticized along with Nakazawa Shin'ichi as a defender of Aum following the Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway . In August 1996, Yoshimoto was in critical condition after falling unconscious while swimming in Toicho, Shizuoka Prefecture, but survived. After

893-496: The JCP over methodological differences during the Anpo protests . Although some Zengakuren members eventually reconciled with the JCP, many were turned against it, leading to conflict between Zengakuren and the JCP. Zengakuren itself was broken into multiple factions, who participated in factional infighting within the organization. This increasing conflict between different groups in the left began

940-459: The University of Tokyo faction was more of a mass movement than an organized movement in which concrete ideas and policies were set forth. Zenkyōtō policies could be more diverse depending on different universities and individuals. Zenkyōtō led a delegation of seven undergraduates to pressure University authorities to accept their demands during the period of conflict at the University of Tokyo. With

987-517: The authorities withdrew their promises to the students. Students with associations to sports began to riot in Ryogoku Auditorium, and riot police was brought in. After the situation calmed down, Nihon University resumed classes in a temporary school complex in Shiraitodai , Fuchū , with 10 buildings surrounded by vacant fields and barbed wire. Staff were stationed at the entrance of the premises, and students were required to show student IDs. This complex

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1034-445: The boundaries of university issues and became a form of "conflict between students and state power". This was no longer a struggle that could be ended by a compromise at each university. Tomofusa Kure , a student involved in the conflict, said that "Self-negation is self-affirmation. To discover it is self-negation. Self-negation is not intended to be the aim – Rather, it emerges as a result of self-affirmation." This "self-negation"

1081-576: The conflict in the university, and Zenkyōtō students occupied and fought in Yasuda Auditorium, which they had occupied in July, against riot police. In January 1969, 8500 riot police were called to Yasuda Auditorium to break up the protest. With different action committees nationwide participating in solidarity with the Nihon Zenkyōtō, the committees were federated into a nationwide Zenkyōtō , escaping

1128-615: The jurisdiction of university student councils. Later, after experiencing hard responses from university authorities as well as government intervention with riot police, Zenkyōtō changed to deal with the change of the "philosophy of universities as a whole, as well as change of academic subjects and reviewing the way universities, students and researchers work." Zenkyōtō believed that modern universities were "factories of education" embedded in imperialist forms of management, with faculty councils as "terminal institutions of power" responsible for their management. They claimed that "university autonomy"

1175-467: The late 1960s, Zenkyōtō was the driving force behind clashes between Japanese students and the police. Zenkyōtō groups were driven by alienation and a reaction to " American imperialism ", Japanese " Monopoly Capitalism ", and "Russian Stalinism ". However, many members of the movement were non-political (known as nonpori in Japanese), and were focused more on more practical and local problems. Much of

1222-557: The left. Yoshimoto's books became best-sellers, especially his 1962 essay collection The End of Fictions , named after his famous 1960 essay of the same name (which was anthologized within). In these and other essays, Yoshimoto developed an independent theory of the arts in the face of criticisms of the Communist Party and sectarian literary theories, emphasizing the aesthetics of language and psychological phenomena, and his concept of "communal fantasy" (共同幻想, kyōdō gensō ), describing how

1269-509: The magazine Experiment (Shikkō) with like-minded activists Tanigawa Gan and Murakami Ichiro, as a place to publish essays and criticism completely independently of any established organization. The journal published articles by Miura Tsutomu, who had been expelled from the Communist Party after the critique of Stalin , his disciple Takimura Ryuichi, Nango Tsugumasa, and others. Edazawa Shunsuke and others made their debuts as critics in Shikkō. Over

1316-633: The mid-1990s, his work tended towards informal essays. In 2003, he won the Kobayashi Hideo Prize for his book Reading Natsume Sōseki (夏目漱石を読む), and his collected works received the Fujimura Memorial prize. Yoshimoto was a wide-ranging author who wrote on literature, subculture , politics, society, and religion (including Shinran and the New Testament ). Yoshimoto is known as a giant of postwar thought, and had an enormous influence in

1363-711: The movement centered around nihilism , humanism and existentialism , which served as inspirations for revolution. Since individual Zenkyōtō groups were formed independently at each university, their timing, purpose, organization and policies were unique. Among Zenkyōtō groups at universities, Nihon University and the University of Tokyo are the most well-known. The media reported that University of Tokyo Zenkyōtō members tried to "dismantle colleges". In their protests, University of Tokyo Zenkyōtō members battled police with hurled stones and wooden staves nicknamed "violence sticks" ( gebaruto bō  [ ja ] ). Some say that

1410-515: The moving of the Ministry of Education after entrance examinations were cancelled, riot police were introduced to suppress a mass Zenkyōtō protest. Athletic groups and people of different ethnicities participated in combat at Nihon University. In 1948, the Zengakuren was founded as a student organization close to the Japan Communist Party (JCP). In 1960, the students of Zengakuren broke with

1457-601: The novel has not been translated. Zenkyoto The All-Campus Joint Struggle Committees ( Japanese : 全学共闘会議; Zengaku kyōtō kaigi ), commonly known as the Zenkyōtō ( Japanese : 全共闘 ), were Japanese student organizations consisting of anti-government, anti- Japanese Communist Party leftist and non-sectarian radicals. The Zenkyōtō were formed to organize students during the 1968–69 Japanese university protests . Unlike other student movement organizations, graduate students and young teachers were allowed to participate. Active in

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1504-455: The power of home and family, and the effect of loss on the human spirit. In 1998, she wrote the foreword to the Italian edition of the book Ryuichi Sakamoto. Conversazioni by musicologist Massimo Milano . In 2013, Yoshimoto wrote the serialized novel, Shall We Love? (僕たち、恋愛しようか?), for the women's magazine Anan , with singer-actor Lee Seung-gi as the central character. The romance novel

1551-421: The propaganda and militarism of the wartime era "swept away virtually the entire population in a wave of war frenzy". Yoshimoto's philosophy of radical individualism became a refuge for students and intellectuals exasperated by the then-current sectarian and bureaucratic Marxism. As a result, Yoshimoto's anti-sectarian philosophy of independence and individualism became a major influence and theoretical resource in

1598-480: The radically egalitarian and highly individualistic New Left protest groups were not individualistic enough, and were still part of the same form of "communal fantasy" (共同幻想, kyōdō gensō ) which had led Japan into World War II . Beginning in the 1980s, Yoshimoto published a theory of the masses, The Mass Image , and particular a theory of the city in The High Image I-III . At this time, Yoshimoto appeared in

1645-477: The remainder of the 1960s, Yoshimoto became a hero to the New Left student activists, and came to be known as the “prophet” ( kyōso ) of the New Left. New Left activists especially appreciated that Yoshimoto was developing a positive theoretical discourse in the midst of the collapse of the Communist Party's heroic status after the failure of the anti-Treaty movement and endless, contentious and dispiriting schisms within

1692-462: The supervision of the Zengakuren, who often sided with university authorities. Committees were organized by levels (students, staff, researchers, etc.) and by departments (humanities, medicine, literature, etc.). Each committee had a degree of autonomy. Committee members participated in committee debates, and decisions were voted on by a show of hands. Attempts by universities to arrest leaders of Zenkyōtō were fruitless. The National Federation of Zenkyōtō

1739-542: The support of the students as university struggles were stuck in stalemates, with seemingly impossible demands, all the while universities were really in danger of being dissolved. Oda Makoto of the Beheiren (Citizen's Alliance for Peace in Vietnam) group claimed that he would start his own movement if Zenkyōtō could not destroy the University of Tokyo. The Zenkyōtō students were extremely nihilistic and rejected hierarchy, seeing

1786-478: The university system as being based primarily on oppression. Their motto was "smash the university" ( daigaku funsai ) – they saw themselves as diametrically opposed to the university system, and would only stop if the universities were destroyed. Zenkyōtō further deemed everyone complicit in the university system as "victimizers" ( kagaisha ). The Zenkyōtō found their ideological basis in Takaaki Yoshimoto – he

1833-642: The university that subsided in June 1966. In May 1968, a demonstration was held in Nihon University, dubbed the 200 Meter Demonstration as a reaction to the secrecy of university authorities on the expenditure of 3400 million yen. On May 27, the Nihon University Zenkyōtō was formed by Akehiro Akita , who chaired the organization. The Zenkyōtō consisted of anti-Communist and non-sectarian radicals. In response to student demands, University authorities held

1880-510: The women's magazine AnAn wearing clothing by Comme des Garçons . Criticized by Haniya Yutaka as "wearing capitalism itself", Yoshimoto was criticized for turning right. Indeed, afterwards Yoshimoto did become more politically conservative, becoming a supporter of Ichirō Ozawa . In the latter part of the 1980s, Yoshimoto criticized the anti-nuclear power and anti-nuclear weapons movements started by intellectual advocates of postwar democracy such as Kenzaburō Ōe as 'Anti-Nuclear Fascism". In

1927-617: The young and rebellious, but also to grown-ups who are still young at heart. Yoshimoto's characters, settings, and titles have a modern and American approach, but the core is Japanese. She addresses readers in a personal and friendly way, with warmth and outright innocence, writing about the simple things such as the squeaking of wooden floors or the pleasant smell of food. Food and dreams are recurring themes in her work which are often associated with memories and emotions. Yoshimoto admits that most of her artistic inspiration derives from her own dreams and that she'd like to always be sleeping and living

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1974-572: Was influenced by the work of Takamura Kōtarō and Miyazawa Kenji . He was a 'militarist youth' during the war, but experienced the end of the war while mobilized for manual labor, and thereon became fascinated by Marxism . Yoshimoto attended Tashima Elementary School in the Kyobashi Ward of Tokyo, Yonezawa Engineering School (Now Yamagata University ), and graduated in 1947 from the Engineering Division of Tokyo Institute of Technology with

2021-554: Was no more than an illusion, and that dismantling such an administration would be an issue. They believed that universities should be dismantled by violence, such as university-wide blockades. According to Zenkyōtō, the ideological question of "self-denial" should be advanced to deny statuses as students or researchers. Students began to use wooden staves against both the riot police and each other, with students taking their nihilism and anger not only onto university power structures, but themselves. Zenkyōtō began to lose its momentum and

2068-408: Was popularly called "Nihon Auschwitz", in reference to Auschwitz concentration camp . In January 1968, a dispute over the status of graduate students in the University of Tokyo Faculty of Medicine over the new Medical Doctors' Law which restricted employment opportunities and a judgement on a militant student made by the board led to mass protests in the University of Tokyo. A Zenkyōtō sprung up at

2115-468: Was set up at Hibiya Park in September 1969. However, Yoshitaka Yamamoto, leader of the University of Tokyo Zenkyōtō, who chaired the rally at Hibiya Park, was arrested. From 1968 to 1969, Zenkyōtō expanded alongside conflicts in the University of Tokyo, "spreading like a wildfire" to universities nationwide. Zenkyōtō initially only dealt with issues specific to each university (tuition fees, etc.) beyond

2162-504: Was so popular among the New Left that he was referred to as a "prophet". During the 1968–69 protests, the Zenkyōtō students harassed Yoshimoto's ideological enemy, Masao Maruyama , to the point where he eventually retired in 1971. The slogans of "disassembly of the university" and "self-denial" emerged in the student movement of the University of Tokyo. The conflict at the university transcended

2209-416: Was the first of her works to feature a Korean singer as the central character. Yoshimoto says that her two main themes are "the exhaustion of young Japanese in contemporary Japan" and "the way in which terrible experiences shape a person's life". Her works describe the problems faced by youth, urban existentialism , and teenagers trapped between imagination and reality. Her works are targeted not only to

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