(1883-1971) novelist, short-story writer, essayist
Shiga Naoya was born in Ishimaki, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan, to Shiga Naoharu and Gin. When he was still very young, his grandparents took him to their residence in Tokyo. A member of an affluent and influential family, Shiga entered the elitist Gakushuin, a school established to educate the imperial family. He became interested in Christianity and joined a Christian study group while in middle school, and in 1906, he entered the English literature department of the Tokyo Imperial University. In 1914, Shiga married Sadako Kade-nokoji. His father disapproved of the marriage, and Shiga responded by renouncing his inheritance, thus severing his ties with his family.
Shiga’s formal literary career began with his publication of the short story “The Little Girl and the Rapeseed Flower” (1904) while he was still in high school. In 1910, Shiga and a group of friends from Gakushuin started a literary magazine as an outlet for their writing, and Shiga regularly contributed short stories. In 1912, he published Otsu Junkichi, his first long work. While critics called the novella uneven, its honesty of emotion ranks it highly among Japan’s literary works. Five years later, while recovering from having been hit by a train, Shiga wrote his masterpiece “At Kinosaki,” a reverie over the deaths of small animals. Shiga excelled in the arena of short stories, but he struggled with novel writing. Despite other attempts, he wrote only one full-length novel—A Dark Night’s Passing—over a 16-year period, from 1921 to 1937. In the last 20 years of his life, Shiga entered into semiretirement, periodically writing personal essays based on his observations.
Shiga is regarded as the supreme stylist of his day. Using an economy of words, he depicted vivid vignettes based closely on his personal experiences. His literary power stems from his objectivity and honesty in portraying his characters’ emotions. In 1949, he received the Order for Cultural Merit.
Other Works by Shiga Naoya
Morning Glories. Translated by Allen Say and David Meltzer. Berkeley, Calif.: Oyez, 1976.
The Paper Door and Other Stories. Translated by Lane Dunlop. San Francisco: North Point Press, 1987.
Works about Shiga Naoya
Mathy, Frances. Shiga Naoya. Boston: Twayne, 1974.
Starrs, Roy. An Artless Art: The Zen Aesthetic of Shiga Naoya. Richmond, Surrey: Japan Library, 1998.
