Japanese Literature, Meiji to Heisei: A Brief Research Guide: Shōwa (1926-1989)

Abe Kimifusa (安部 公房), known by the pen name Abe Kōbō, was a writer, playwright, and director. His works are known for their modernist styles and surreality. He is influenced by various European writers, including Dostoevsky, Kafka, Nietzsche, and Poe. He gained international critical acclaim through his book The Woman in the Dunes (1962). He was a pacifist, a stance which influenced him to join the Japanese Communist Party, though he later also expressed doubts about the Party's practice, and joined a group of other authors in criticism of the cultural policies of the Party until 1967.

TSUSHIMA Shūji (津島 修治), known by the pen name Dazai Osamu, was a novelist best known for his introspective, confessional, and existentialist writing. His influences included Akutagawa Ryūnosuke, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and the Heian writer Murasaki Shikibu. It is considered that Dazai deteriorated after the Akutagawa committed suicide in 1927. He was also involved in leftist movements during his youth. His most popular and last completed novel, No Longer Human (A Shameful Life) (1948), is considered to be a semi-autobiography, with some readers interpreting it as a suicide note. He was also a part of Buraiha (無頼派), a Decadent group of writers in Post-War Japan.

Hirai Tarō (平井 太郎), known by the pen name Edogawa Ranpo, was a writer and critic, best known for his contribution to the development of the Japanese mystery and thriller fiction as a genre. His pen name is a rendering of Edgar Allan Poe's name, who is also a major influence in his mystery writing. He is also influenced by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and his character Akechi Kogoro (明智 小五郎) is a recurring detective character with clear lines of inspiration that can be drawn to Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. The Edogawa Ranpo Prize is a Japanese literary award named after him, presented annually.

Hayashi Fumiko was a writer, often included in the feminist literature canon. In 1938, she joined Pen Butai (ペン部隊, "Pen Corps"), which was a government organization that traveled to the Japanese war fronts and wrote favorably of the Japanese war efforts. During the Pacific War, she also traveled across Southeast Asia with other women writers. She did not respond to criticism for her participation in wartime propaganda. She was awarded the 3rd Woman Literary Award for her short story "Late Chrysanthemum" (1948).

Ishikawa Kiyoshi, known by the pen name Ishikawa Jun, was a modernist writer, translator, and literary critic. He graduated from Tokyo University with a degree in French literature, and his early career included translating French writers into Japanese, including Anatole France and André Gide. Ishikawa was a pacifist, and during the Second Sino-Japanese War, he published the antiwar short story "Mars' Song" (1938). Along with Dazai Osamu and other writers, he was considered as part of Buraiha (無頼派), a Decadent group of writers with expression of aimlessness and identity crisis in Post-War Japan.

Kawabata Yasunari was a novelist and short story writer, known for his lyrical prose, and in 1968, the first Japanese author to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature. He was associated with the pre-war Japanese literary group Shinkankakuha, which explored new impressions and perceptions in Japanese writing. He also started the literary journal Bungei Jidai ("The Artistic Age") in 1924, with influences from European modernist styles, including Cubism, Dadaism, and Expressionism. His passing is surrounded by theories; while some people considered it accidental, some considered it suicide, with one advanced theory being shock and recurring nightmares from Mishima Yukio's seppuku in 1970.

Hiroshi Kikuchi (菊池 寛), also known as Kan Kikuchi, was a writer and publisher. He established the publishing company Bungeishunjū in 1923 which published a monthly magazine of the same name, and would later grant the annual Akutagawa Prize and the Naoki Prize, both prizes which he also established. In 1938, he joined Pen Butai (ペン部隊, "Pen Corps"), which was a government organization that traveled to the Japanese war fronts and wrote favorably of the Japanese war efforts. He was later associated with the "Patriotic Association for Japanese Literature," a subordinate of a cabinet responsible for improving pro-Japan public opinion on WWII. He was removed from all public service positions after the war due to his role as a wartime collaborator.

Hiraoka Kimitake (平岡 公威), known by the pen name Mishima Yukio, was a writer, actor, and model. His literary works are known for their fusion of traditional Japanese and modern Western literary styles, as well as their decadent metaphors. He held a far-right and reactionist belief, and strongly opposed Western influences and philosophy, as well as Japan's postwar democracy. In 1970, he led an attempted coup d'état try inspire a restoration of pre-war political system, including the divinity of the Emperor. He delivered a speech, and committed seppuku after.

Miyazawa Kenji was a poet and writer of children's literature. He was also known as a teacher of agricultural science, and his family were pious followers of Shin Buddhism. From his experience and affinity of natural history, his poetry is identified with agrarianism, and very much drew inspiration from his environment.

Miyamoto Yuriko was a writer, social activist, and literary critic, best known for her autobiographical fiction and involvement in proletarian and feminist magazines that were heavily censored, as well as in the proletarian and women's liberation movements. She became a member of the Union of Japanese Proletarian Writers in 1930, and the Japanese Communist Party in 1931. Her literary works tend to center around themes of war, class, and gender relations. In her combination of socialism and feminism, she advocates for individuals to seek self-fulfillment.

Nakahara Chūya, born Kashimura Chūya (柏村 中也), was a poet influenced by Dadaism and European experimental poetry, particularly French symbolism. He is referred to as the "Japanese Rimbaud" for his works on translating Rimbaud's poems into Japanese, his affinity, and thus influence. He launched a small literary magazine, Yamamayu, along with the literary critic Kobayashi Hideo, who was also his long-time friend, because his works were rejected by many publishers.

Nogami Yaeko was a novelist. She submitted her poems and short stories to mainstream literary magazines as well as to Seitō, the feminist magazine, and gained recognition through the proletarian literature movement. She maintained correspondence with Yuasa Yoshiko, a scholar of Russian literature and supporter of the feminist movement, and with Miyamoto Yuriko, a feminist and proletarian activist. After the war, Nogami joined Miyamoto's foundation, the New Japanese Literature Association.

Oda Sakunosuke was a writer associated with Buraiha (無頼派), a decadent school of writing that explored the perceived aimlessness and identity crisis of post-war Japan. The label was less about a stylistic school, but rather the perception of critics on the group. While the term applies to other writers, the label is mainly applied to Oda along with Dazai Osamu and Sakaguchi Ango, with whom he was also a close acquaintance. His works mainly revolve around an exploration of the behavior and daily life in the city.

Tanizaki Jun'icirō was a writer, considered one of the most prominent figures in modern Japanese literature. His works explored the depiction of sexuality and destructive obsessions, as well as family dynamics in 20th-century Japanese life. A common theme in his writing is the juxtaposition of Western and Japanese culture in the search for identity. The Tanizaki Prize, one of Japan's most sought-after literary awards, was named after him, and is awarded annually to a full-length literary work of fiction or drama by an established, professional writer.

Sakaguchi Heigo (坂口 炳五), known by the pen name Sakaguchi Ango, was a writer and essayist, associated with Buraiha (無頼派), a decadent school of writing that explored the perceived aimlessness and identity crisis of post-war Japan, where he is also well-acquainted with Dazai Osamu and Oda Sakunosuke. His essay "Discourse on Decadence" (1946) examined the role of a moral code and the potential of liberation in embracing humane imperfections.