Shigeru Tonomura

Novelist. His real name was Shigeru. He was born in Shiga Prefecture on December 23, 1902, as the son of a wealthy Omi merchant. In 1925 (Taisho 14), while studying at the Faculty of Economics of Tokyo Imperial University, he founded the literary coterie magazine "Aozora" with his friend since Sanko High School, Kajii Motojiro, and others, and published his studies. After graduating, he temporarily gave up literature to take over the family business, but in 1933 (Showa 8), he wrote "The Story of the Cormorant" and made a fresh start. As he became a member of the coterie magazine "Kirin" and "Seiki," and wrote various stories about shops, he was nominated for the first Akutagawa Prize in 1902, and began writing "Kusaikada," a trilogy that would later include "Ikada" (Raft) (1954-56) and "Hanaikada" (Flower Raft) (1957-58), which he completed three years later. This masterpiece delves deeply into the inner world of the Tonomura family, merchants from Goshu. After the war, he mourned the death of his late wife in "Dreamy Foam" (1949) and depicted his own sexual history in "Miotsukushi" (1960, winner of the Yomiuri Literature Prize), but he was stricken with cancer at roughly the same time as his second wife. In "Views of the Setting Sun" (1960), he quietly describes his feelings as he comes to terms with death. He died on July 28, 1961.

[Mari Takahashi]

"The Complete Works of Shigeru Tonomura, 6 volumes (1962, Kodansha)"

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

小説家。本名茂。明治35年12月23日富裕な近江(おうみ)商人の子として滋賀県に生まれる。東京帝国大学経済学部在学中の1925年（大正14）、三高以来の友人梶井基次郎(かじいもとじろう)らと同人誌『青空』を創刊し習作を発表する。卒業後家業を継ぐため一時文学を断念するが、33年（昭和8）『鵜(う)の物語』を書いて再出発を遂げる。『麒麟(きりん)』『世紀』などの同人となって商店ものの諸作を執筆するなかで、35年、第1回芥川(あくたがわ)賞候補となり、後の『筏(いかだ)』（1954～56）、『花筏』（1957～58）と三部作をなす『草筏』を起稿、3年後に完結する。江州(ごうしゅう)商人外村一族の血筋を内面的に掘り下げた傑作である。戦後は『夢幻泡影』（1949）に亡妻の死を悼み、『澪標(みおつくし)』（1960。読売文学賞受賞）に自身の性欲史を描くが、やがて再婚した夫人とほぼ同時期に癌(がん)に冒される。『落日の光景』（1960）には死と向き合った心境が静かな筆致でつづられている。昭和36年7月28日没。

［高橋真理］

『『外村繁全集』全六巻（1962・講談社）』

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