Yoshiya Nobuko

Novelist. Born on January 12, 1896 in Niigata Prefecture, where her father, a government official, was stationed, she graduated from Tochigi Girls' High School. She started out as a letter writer for a girls' magazine, and after graduating she moved to Tokyo. She began writing in 1917 (Taisho 6) with Hana Monogatari (1924), which became popular among young girls. In 1916, her novel Chi no Hate Made (To the End of the Earth) won a novel contest held by the Osaka Asahi Shimbun, and she entered the field of popular fiction. Her works, such as Onna no Yujou (Women's Friendship) (1933-34) and Ototo no Teiso (My Husband's Teiso) (1936-37), which veiled Christian idealism with lyricism, were well received by the female masses, and she became a leading popular writer, on a par with the male author Kikuchi Kan. After World War II, she also became interested in pure literature, and in Will-o'-the-Wives (1952, for which she won the Women's Writers' Award) and Frozen Butterfly (1953), she succinctly depicted the daily lives of nameless commoners. She showed her talent in biographical novels with "Toki no koe" (1965), which followed the life of Yamamuro Gunpei of the Salvation Army, and completed her literary career with her major historical novel "Tokugawa no fufutachi" (1966), written in perfect harmony with the beautiful Kenyusha style of writing and the content. She passed away on July 11, 1973. Her former home in Kamakura is now the Yoshiya Nobuko Memorial Museum.

[Akiko Esashi]

"The Complete Works of Yoshiya Nobuko, 12 volumes (1975-76, Asahi Shimbun)"

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

小説家。明治29年1月12日官吏である父の任地新潟県で生まれ、栃木高等女学校卒業。少女雑誌の投書家として出発し、卒業後上京、1917年（大正6）から書き始めた『花物語』（1924）で少女読者の人気を博した。19年『地の果まで』が『大阪朝日新聞』の懸賞小説に当選して、大衆通俗小説の分野に進出。『女の友情』（1933～34）、『良人(おっと)の貞操』（1936～37）など、キリスト教的な理想主義に叙情のベールをかぶせた作品で女性大衆に受け、男の菊池寛(かん)と並び称される大衆作家の第一人者になった。第二次世界大戦後は純文学にも意欲を燃やし、『鬼火』（1952。女流文学者賞受賞）、『凍蝶(いてちょう)』（1953）で名もない市井人の日常を簡潔に描いた。救世軍の山室軍平の生涯を追った『ときの声』（1965）では伝記小説にもさえた腕前をみせ、晩年の大作歴史小説『徳川の夫人たち』（1966）では、硯友社(けんゆうしゃ)調の美文体と内容の完全な一致をみて、文業を完成した。昭和48年7月11日没。鎌倉市にある旧居は吉屋信子記念館となっている。

［江刺昭子］

『『吉屋信子全集』全12巻（1975～76・朝日新聞社）』

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