Kōbō Abe

{{short description|Japanese writer, playwright, photographer and inventor}} {{Eastern name order|Abe Kōbō}} {{Use mdy dates|date=May 2014}} {{Infobox writer | name = Kōbō Abe | native_name = 安部公房 | native_name_lang = ja | image = Kinema-Junpo-1967-January-Special-3.jpg | image_size = | caption = Kōbō Abe in 1967 | birth_name = Kimifusa Abe (安部公房 ''Abe Kimifusa'') | birth_date = {{birth date|1924|03|07}}<ref name=EB>{{cite encyclopedia |editor-first=Dale H. |editor-last=Hoiberg |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |title=Abe Kobo |edition=15th |year=2010 |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. |volume=I: A-ak Bayes |location=Chicago, Illinois |isbn=978-1-59339-837-8 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/newencyclopaedia2009ency/page/23 23–24] |url=https://archive.org/details/newencyclopaedia2009ency/page/23 }}{{irrelevant citation|date=April 2022}}</ref> | birth_place = Kita, Tokyo, Japan | death_date = {{death date and age|1993|01|22|1924|03|07}} | death_place = Tokyo, Japan | genre = Absurdist fiction, surrealism | occupation = Writer | language = Japanese | education = Seijo High School | spouse = Machi Abe | children = Neri Abe | movement = Modernism | notable_works = ''The Woman in the Dunes'' ''The Face of Another'' ''The Box Man'' | awards = Akutagawa Prize Yomiuri Prize Tanizaki Prize | alma_mater = University of Tokyo }}

{{nihongo|'''Kimifusa Abe'''|安部公房|''Abe Kimifusa''|March 7, 1924 – January 22, 1993}}, known by his pen name {{nihongo|'''Kōbō Abe'''|安部公房|''Abe Kōbō''}}, was a Japanese writer, playwright and director. His 1962 novel ''The Woman in the Dunes'' was made into an award-winning film by Hiroshi Teshigahara in 1964.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Allinson |first=Gary D. |url=http://archive.org/details/columbiaguidetom0000alli |title=The Columbia guide to modern Japanese history |date=1999 |publisher=New York : Columbia University Press |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-231-11144-7}}</ref> Abe has often been compared to Franz Kafka for his modernist sensibilities and his surreal, often nightmarish explorations of individuals in contemporary society.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Bolton |first=Christopher |title=Sublime voices : the fictional science and scientific fiction of Abe Kōbō |date=2009 |publisher=Harvard University Asia Center |isbn=978-0-674-03278-1 |location=Cambridge, Mass. |oclc=261174053}}</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20121104044308/http://movies.nytimes.com/person/171702/Kobo-Abe ''New York Times''.]</ref><ref>Timothy Iles, ''Abe Kobo: an Exploration of his Prose, Drama, and Theatre'', EPAP, 2000.</ref> He died aged 68 of heart failure in Tokyo after a brief illness.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1993/01/23/obituaries/kobo-abe-68-the-skeptical-poet-of-an-uprooted-society-is-dead.html] Sterngold, James. ''Kobo Abe, 68, the Skeptical Poet Of an Uprooted Society, Is Dead''. The New York Times, 1993</ref>

==Biography== Abe was born on March 7, 1924<ref name=EB/><ref name="Who Was Who">{{cite book|title=Who Was Who in America, 1993–1996, vol. 11|year=1996|publisher=Marquis Who's Who|location=New Providence, N.J.|isbn=0837902258|page=[https://archive.org/details/whowaswhoinameri11marq/page/1 1]|chapter=Abe, Kobo|url=https://archive.org/details/whowaswhoinameri11marq|url-access=registration}}</ref> in Kita, Tokyo, Japan and grew up in Mukden (now Shenyang) in Manchuria.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=EB/> Abe's family was in Tokyo at the time due to his father's year of medical research in Tokyo.<ref name="FF">{{cite book |last=Shields |first=Nancy |url=https://archive.org/details/fakefishtheatero0000shie/page/n5/mode/2up?view=theater |title=Fake Fish: The Theater of Kobo Abe |publisher=Weatherhill |year=1996 |isbn=9780834803541 |location=New York & Tokyo}}</ref> His mother had been raised in Hokkaido, while he experienced childhood in Manchuria. This triplicate assignment of origin was influential to Abe, who told Nancy Shields in a 1978 interview, "I am essentially a man without a hometown.<ref name=":0" /> This may be what lies behind the 'hometown phobia' that runs in the depth of my feelings. All things that are valued for their stability offend me."<ref name=FF/> As a child, Abe was interested in insect-collecting, mathematics, and reading. His favorite authors were Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Martin Heidegger, Karl Jaspers, Franz Kafka, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Edgar Allan Poe.<ref name=EB/>

[[File:Abe Kobo cooks jiaozi.JPG|thumb|left|Abe prepares gyōza]] Abe returned to Tokyo briefly in April 1940 to study at Seijo High School, but a lung condition forced his return to Mukden, where he read Jaspers, Heidegger, Dostoyevsky, and Edmund Husserl. Abe began to study medicine at Tokyo Imperial University in 1943, partially out of respect for his father, but also because "[t]hose students who specialized in medicine were exempted from becoming soldiers. My friends who chose the humanities were killed in the war."<ref name=FF/> He returned to Manchuria around the end of World War II.<ref name=EB/> Specifically, Abe left the Tokyo University Medical School in October 1944, returning to his father's clinic in Mukden.<ref name=FF/> That winter, his father died of eruptive typhus. Returning to Tokyo with his father's ashes, Abe reentered the medical school. Abe started writing novellas and short stories during his last year in university. He graduated in 1948 with a medical degree, once joking that he was allowed to graduate only on the condition that he would not practice.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=FF/>

In 1945 Abe married Machi Yamada, an artist and stage director, and the couple saw successes within their fields in similar time frames.<ref name=FF/> Initially, they lived in an old barracks within a bombed-out area of the city center. Abe sold pickles and charcoal on the street to pay their bills. The couple joined a number of artistic study groups, such as Yoru no Kai (Group of the Night or The Night Society) and ''Nihon Bungaku Gakko'' (Japanese Literary School). Their daughter, Abe Neri, was born in 1954.<ref>{{Cite web |title=HORAGAI: Abe Kobo |url=http://www.horagai.com/www/abe/xneri.htm |access-date=2022-04-12 |website=www.horagai.com}}</ref>

As the postwar period progressed, Abe's stance as an intellectual pacifist led to his joining the Japanese Communist Party, with which he worked to organize laborers in poor parts of Tokyo. Soon after receiving the Akutagawa Prize in 1951, Abe began to feel the constraints of the Communist Party's rules and regulations alongside doubts about what meaningful artistic works could be created in the genre of "socialist realism."<ref name=FF/> By 1956, Abe began writing in solidarity with the Polish workers who were protesting against their Communist government, drawing the Communist Party's ire. The criticism reaffirmed his stance: "The Communist Party put pressure on me to change the content of the article and apologize. But I refused. I said I would never change my opinion on the matter. This was my first break with the Party."<ref name=FF/>{{rp|35}}{{efn|Though see the different analysis in Schnellbächer, who states that Abe's "evaluation of the insurrections in Poland and Hungary is curiously helpless, in both cases mirroring the official communist reading"<ref>{{cite book | last=Schnellbächer | first=T. | title=Abe Kōbō, Literary Strategist: The Evolution of His Agenda and Rhetoric in the Context of Postwar Japanese Avant-garde and Communist Artists' Movements | publisher=Iudicium | series=Iaponia insula | year=2004 | isbn=978-3-89129-822-0 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Cs8PAAAAYAAJ |pages=423–427}}</ref>}} The next year, Abe traveled to Eastern Europe for the 20th Convention of the Soviet Communist Party. He saw little of interest there, but the arts gave him some solace. He visited Kafka's house in Prague, read Rilke and Karel Čapek, reflected on his idol Lu Xun, and was moved by a Mayakovsky play in Brno.<ref name=FF/>

The Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956 disgusted Abe. He attempted to leave the Communist Party, but resignations from the party were not accepted at the time. In 1960, he participated in the Anpo Protests against revision of the US-Japan Security Treaty as part of the pan-ideological Young Japan Society.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Kapur, Nick, 1980-|title=Japan at the crossroads : conflict and compromise after Anpo|year=2018|isbn=978-0-674-98850-7|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|pages=177|oclc=1041937833}}</ref> He later wrote a play about the protests, ''The Day the Stones Speak'', which was staged several times in Japan and China in 1960 and 1961.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Kapur, Nick, 1980-|title=Japan at the crossroads : conflict and compromise after Anpo|year=2018|isbn=978-0-674-98850-7|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|pages=179|oclc=1041937833}}</ref> In the summer of 1961, Abe joined a group of other authors in criticizing the cultural policies of the Communist Party. He was forcibly expelled from the party the following year.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Kapur, Nick, 1980-|title=Japan at the crossroads : conflict and compromise after Anpo|year=2018|isbn=978-0-674-98850-7|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|pages=213–14|oclc=1041937833}}</ref> His political activity came to an end in 1967 in the form of a statement published by himself, Yukio Mishima, Yasunari Kawabata, and Jun Ishikawa, protesting the treatment of writers, artists, and intellectuals in Communist China.<ref name=FF/> According to translator John Nathan, this statement led to the falling-out between Abe and fellow writer Kenzaburō Ōe.<ref name="nathan">{{cite book|title=Living Carelessly in Tokyo and Elsewhere: A Memoir |first=John |last=Nathan |publisher=Simon and Schuster |year=2008}}</ref>

His experiences in Manchuria were also deeply influential on his writing, imprinting terrors and fever dreams that became surrealist hallmarks of his works. In his recollections of Mukden, these markers are evident: "The fact is, it may not have been trash in the center of the marsh at all; it may have been crows. I do have a memory of thousands of crows flying up from the swamp at dusk, as if the surface of the swamp were being lifted up into the air."<ref name=FF/> The trash of the marsh was a truth of life, as were the crows, yet Abe's recollections of them tie them distinctively. Further experiences with the swamp centered around its use as a staking ground for condemned criminals with "[their] heads—now food for crows—appearing suddenly out of the darkness and disappearing again, terrified and attracted to us." These ideas are present in much of Abe's work.

==Career== Abe was first published as a poet in 1947 with ''Mumei-shishū'' (''"Poems of an unknown poet"''), which he paid for himself,<ref name=EB/> and as a novelist the following year with ''Owarishi michi no shirube ni'' (''"The Road Sign at the End of the Street"''), which established his reputation.<ref name=EB/> When he received the Akutagawa Prize in 1951, his ability to continue publishing was confirmed.<ref name=FF/> Though he did much work as an avant-garde novelist and playwright, it was not until the publication of ''The Woman in the Dunes'' in 1962 that Abe won widespread international acclaim.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rogala |first=Jozef |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eR3kzmlQUCAC |title=A Collector's Guide to Books on Japan in English: A Select List of Over 2500 Titles |date=2001 |publisher=Psychology Press |isbn=978-1-873410-90-5 |pages=3 |language=en}}</ref> In 1970, Abe's ''Inter Ice Age 4'' became the first Japanese science fiction novel to appear in English, in a translation by American scholar E. Dale Saunders.<ref name="Extrapolation">"Japanese Science Fiction in English Translation" by John L. Apostolou, Extrapolation, volume 25, number 1, spring 1984, page 84.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/koboabe.htm |title=Kobo Abe |website=Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi) |first=Petri |last=Liukkonen |publisher=Kuusankoski Public Library |location=Finland |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20121117013431/http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/koboabe.htm |archivedate=17 November 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia|last=John|first=Clute|title=Abe Kobo|url=http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/abe_kobo|encyclopedia=The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction|publisher=Orion Publishing Group}}</ref>

In the 1960s, he collaborated with Japanese director Hiroshi Teshigahara on the film adaptations of ''The Pitfall,'' ''Woman in the Dunes,'' ''The Face of Another,'' and ''The Man Without a Map''. ''Woman in the Dunes'' received widespread critical acclaim and was released only four months after Abe was expelled from the Japanese Communist Party.

In 1971, he founded the Abe Studio, an acting studio in Tokyo.<ref name=FF/> Until the end of the decade, he trained performers and directed plays. The decision to found the studio came two years after he first directed his own work in 1969, a production of ''The Man Who Turned Into A Stick''. The production's sets were designed by Abe's wife Machi<ref>https://www.literaryroadhouse.com/author-spotlight-kobo-abe/</ref>, and Hisashi Igawa starred. Abe had become dissatisfied with ability of the theatre to materialize the abstract, reducing it to a passive medium. Until 1979, he wrote, directed, and produced 14 plays at the Abe Studio. He also published two novels, ''Box Man'' (1973) and ''Secret Rendezvous'' (1977), alongside a series of essays, musical scores, and photographic exhibits.<ref name=FF/> The Seibu Theater, an avant-garde theater in the new department store Parco, was allegedly established in 1973 specifically for Abe, though many other artists were given the chance to use it. The Abe Studio production of ''The Glasses of Love Are Rose Colored'' (1973) opened there. Later, the entirety of the Seibu Museum was used to present one of Abe's photographic works, ''An Exhibition of Images: I''.<ref name=FF/>

The Abe Studio provided a foil for much of the contemporary scene in Japanese theater, contrasting with the Haiyuza's conventional productions, opting to focus on dramatic, as opposed to physical, expression. It was a safe space for young performers, whom Abe would often recruit from the Toho Gakuen College in Chofu City, on the outskirts of Tokyo, where he taught. The average age of the performers in the studio was about 27 throughout the decade, as members left and fresh faces were brought in. Abe "deftly" handled issues arising from difference in stage experience.<ref name=FF/>

In 1977 Abe was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.<ref name=AAAS>{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter A|url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterA.pdf|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|access-date=March 18, 2011}}</ref>

==Awards== Among the honors Abe received were the Akutagawa Prize in 1951 for ''The Crime of S. Karuma,''<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/bedfordanthology0006unse/page/915/mode/1up?view=theater&q=915 |title=The Bedford Anthology of World Literature: The Twentieth Century, 1900-The Present |publisher=Bedford/St. Martin's |year=2003 |isbn=031240266X |editor-last=Davis |editor-first=Paul |location=Boston & New York |pages=915}}</ref> the Yomiuri Prize in 1962 for ''The Woman in the Dunes,'' and the Tanizaki Prize in 1967 for the play ''Friends.'' Kenzaburō Ōe credited Abe and other modern Japanese authors for "[creating] the way to the Nobel Prize", which he himself won.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Sterngold|first1=James|title=Nobel in Literature Goes to Kenzaburo Oe of Japan|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/10/14/books/nobel-in-literature-goes-to-kenzaburo-oe-of-japan.html?pagewanted=all|work=The New York Times|date=14 October 1994}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Streitfeld|first1=David|title=Japanese Writer Oe Wins Nobel|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1994/10/14/japanese-writer-oe-wins-nobel/0de26b8e-6395-4b41-89e5-d7082828807e/|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=14 October 1994}}</ref> Abe was mentioned multiple times as a possible recipient, but his early death precluded that possibility.<ref name=FF/>

==Bibliography== ===Novels=== {| class="wikitable" ! Year ! Japanese Title ! English Title ! Translations available ! Notes |- |1948 |{{nihongo2|終りし道の標に}} Owarishi michi no shirube ni |''At the Guidepost at the End of the Road'' | | |- |1954 |{{nihongo2|飢餓同盟}} Kiga doumei |''Starving Unions'' | | |- |1957 |{{nihongo2|けものたちは故郷をめざす}} Kemono tachi wa kokyou wo mezasu |''Beasts Head for Home'' |Richard F. Calichman | |- |1959 |{{nihongo2|第四間氷期}} Dai-Yon Kampyōki |''Inter Ice Age 4'' |E. Dale Saunders |<ref name=EB/> Illustrated by Abe Machi |- |1960 |{{nihongo2|石の眼}} Ishi no me |''Stony Eyes'' | | |- |1962 |{{nihongo2|砂の女}} Suna no onna |''The Woman in the Dunes'' |E. Dale Saunders |Adapted into an international film<ref name=EB/> |- |1964 |{{nihongo2|他人の顔}} Tanin no kao |''The Face of Another'' |E. Dale Saunders |Adapted into a film by the same title<ref name=EB/> |- |1964 |{{nihongo2|榎本武揚}} Enomoto Takeaki |''The Traitor'' |Mark Gibeau |Commissioned conversion to a play by theatrical company Kumo and directed by Hiroshi Akutagawa Mixed reviews: Keene preferred the novel to the play, while Oe considered it "genuinely new."<ref name=FF/> |- |1966 |{{nihongo2|人間そっくり}} Ningen sokkuri |''The Double of Human Being'' | | |- |1967 |{{nihongo2|燃えつきた地図}} Moetsukita chizu |''The Ruined Map'' |E. Dale Saunders |<ref name=EB/> |- |1973 |{{nihongo2|箱男}} Hako otoko |''The Box Man'' |E. Dale Saunders |<ref name=EB/> |- |1977 |{{nihongo2|密会}} Mikkai |''Secret Rendezvous'' |Juliet Winters Carpenter, 1979 |<ref name=EB/> |- |1984 |{{nihongo2|方舟さくら丸}} Hakobune sakura maru |''The Ark Sakura'' |Juliet Winters Carpenter, 1988 |<ref name=EB/> |- |1991 |{{nihongo2|カンガルー・ノート}} Kangaruu noto |''Kangaroo Notebook'' |Maryellen Toman Mori | |- |1994 |{{nihongo2|飛ぶ男}} Tobu otoko |''The Flying Man'' | |Incomplete |}

===Collected short stories=== {| class="wikitable" ! Year ! Japanese Title ! English Title ! Translations available ! Notes |- |1949 |{{nihongo2|唖むすめ}} Oshimusume |"The Deaf Girl" |Andrew Horvat |Collected in ''Four Stories by Kobo Abe'' |- |1949 |{{nihongo2|デンドロカカリヤ}} Dendorokakariya |"Dendrocacalia" |Juliet Winters Carpenter |Collected in ''Beyond the Curve'' |- |1949 |{{nihongo2|夢の逃亡}} Yume no toubou |"The Dream Escape" | | |- |1950 |{{nihongo2|赤い繭}} Akai mayu |"The Red Cocoon" |Lane Dunlop |Collected in ''A Late chrysanthemum: Twenty-One Stories from the Japanese'' |- |1950 |{{nihongo2|洪水}} Kouzui |"The Flood" |Lane Dunlop |Collected in ''A Late chrysanthemum: Twenty-One Stories from the Japanese'' |- |1950 |{{nihongo2|棒}} Bou |"The Stick" |Lane Dunlop |Collected in ''A Late chrysanthemum: Twenty-One Stories from the Japanese'' |- |1951 |{{nihongo2|魔法のチョーク}} Mahou no chouku |"The Magic Chalk" |Alison Kibrick |Collected in ''The Showa Anthology: Modern Japanese Short Stories'' |- |1951 |{{nihongo2|壁―S・カルマ氏の犯罪}} Kabe―S・Karuma shi no hanzai |The Wall ― The Crime of S. Karma |Juliet Winters Carpenter |Winner of the Akutagawa Prize Excerpt collected in ''Beyond the Curve'' |- |1951 |{{nihongo2|手}} Te |"Hand" |Ted Mack |Appears in ''Columbia: A Journal of Literature and Art,'' No. 27 (Winter 1996–97), pp. 50–57<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Abe|first1=Kôbô|last2=Mack|first2=Ted|date=1996|title=Hand|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41807316|journal=Columbia: A Journal of Literature and Art|issue=27|pages=50–57|jstor=41807316 |issn=0161-486X}}</ref> |- |1951 |{{nihongo2|闖入者}} Chinnyusha |"Intruders" |Juliet Winters Carpenter |Collected in ''Beyond the Curve'' |- |1951 |{{nihongo2|詩人の生涯}} Shijin no Shougai |"The Life of a Poet" |Juliet Winters Carpenter |Collected in ''Beyond the Curve'' |- |1951 |{{nihongo2|飢えた皮膚}} Ueta hihu |"The Starving Skin" | | |- |1952 |{{nihongo2|ノアの方舟}} Noa no hakobune |"Noah's Ark" |Juliet Winters Carpenter |Collected in ''Beyond the Curve'' |- |1952 |{{nihongo2|水中都市}} Suichu toshi |"The Underwater City" | | |- |1954 |{{nihongo2|犬}} Inu |"The Dog" |Andrew Horvat |Collected in ''Four Stories by Kobo Abe'' |- |1954 |{{nihongo2|変形の記録}} Henkei no kiroku |"Record of a Transformation" |Juliet Winters Carpenter |Collected in ''Beyond the Curve'' |- |1954 |Shinda musume ga utatta |"Song of a Dead Girl" |Stuart A. Harrington |Collected in ''The Mother of Dreams and Other Short Stories: Portrayals of Women in Modern Japanese Fiction'' |- |1956 |{{nihongo2|R62号の発明}} R62 gou no hatumei |"Inventions by No. R62" | | |- |1957 |{{nihongo2|誘惑者}} Yuwakusha |"Beguiled" |Juliet Winters Carpenter |Collected in ''Beyond the Curve'' |- |1957 |{{nihongo2|夢の兵士}} Yume no heishi |"The Dream Soldier" |First translation, 1973 by Andrew Horvat Second translation, 1991 by Juliet Winters Carpenter |First translation collected in ''Four Stories by Kobo Abe'' Second translation collected in ''Beyond the Curve'' |- |1957 |{{nihongo2|鉛の卵}} Namari no tamago |"The Egg of Pb" | | |- |1958 |{{nihongo2|使者}} Shisha |"The Special Envoy" |Juliet Winters Carpenter |Collected in ''Beyond the Curve'' |- |1960 |{{nihongo2|賭け}} Kake |"The Bet" |Juliet Winters Carpenter |Collected in ''Beyond the Curve'' |- |1961 |{{nihongo2|無関係な死}} Mukankei na shi |"An Irrelevant Death" |Juliet Winters Carpenter |Collected in ''Beyond the Curve'' |- |1964 |{{nihongo2|時の崖}} Toki no gake |"The Cliff of Time" |Andrew Horvat |Collected in ''Four Stories by Kobo Abe''. Adapted into a short film in 1971 starring Hisashi Igawa that was directed by Abe himself.<ref>{{Citation |last=Abe |first=Kôbô |title=Toki no gake |date=1971-07-02 |type=Short |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt17593806/ |access-date=2025-03-20 |others=Hisashi Igawa}}</ref><ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://mubi.com/en/us/films/the-cliff-of-time |title=The Cliff of Time (1971) {{!}} MUBI |language=en |access-date=2025-03-20 |via=mubi.com}}</ref> |- |1966 |{{nihongo2|カーブの向う}} Kabu no mukou |"Beyond the Curve" |Juliet Winters Carpenter |First collection published in English<ref name=EB/> |- |}

===Plays=== {| class="wikitable" ! Year ! Japanese Title ! English Title ! Translations available ! Notes |- | |{{nihongo2|時間の崖}} Jikan no gake |The Cliff of Time |Donald Keene |Collected in ''The Man Who Turned Into A Stick: Three Related Plays'' |- | |{{nihongo2|スーツケース}} Sūtsukēsu |Suitcase |Donald Keene |Collected in ''The Man Who Turned Into A Stick: Three Related Plays'' |- |1955 |{{nihongo2|制服}} Seifuku |Uniforms | | |- |1955 |{{nihongo2|どれい狩り}} Dorei gari |Slave Hunting | | |- |1955 |{{nihongo2|快速船}} Kaisoku sen |The Speedy Ship | | |- |1957<ref>{{cite book |title= McGraw-Hill encyclopedia of world drama: an international reference work in 5 vol, Volume 1|last= Hochman|first= Stanley|year= 1984|publisher= VNR AG|isbn= 0-07-079169-4|page= 2|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=VGNJxj9qnEkC&q=%22The+Man+Who+Turned+Into+A+Stick%22&pg=PA2}}</ref> |{{nihongo2|棒になった男}} Bou ni natta otoko |The Man Who Turned Into A Stick |Donald Keene |Collected in ''The Man Who Turned Into A Stick: Three Related Plays'' The 1969 production was the first time Abe directed his own work. His wife designed the set.<ref name=FF/> |- |1958 |{{nihongo2|幽霊はここにいる}} Yuurei wa koko ni iru |The Ghost Is Here |Donald Keene |Collected in ''Three Plays by Kōbō Abe'' Award-winning production by Koreya Senda Well received in East Germany<ref name=FF/> |- |1965 |{{nihongo2|おまえにも罪がある}} Omae nimo tsumi ga aru |You, Too, Are Guilty |Ted T. Takaya |Collected in ''Modern Japanese Drama: An Anthology'' |- |1967 |{{nihongo2|友達}} Tomodachi |Friends |Donald Keene |Performed in English in Honolulu<ref name=EB/> Akutagawa Award winner 1967 Adapted into a film in 1988, directed by Kjell-Åke Andersson<ref name=FF/> |- |1967 |{{nihongo2|榎本武揚}} Enomoto Takeaki |Takeaki Enomoto | |Alt. translation: Enomoto Buyo<ref name=FF/> Directed by the son of Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, "father of the Japanese short story"<ref name=FF/> |- |1971 |{{nihongo2|未必の故意}} Mihitsu no koi |Involuntary Homicide |Donald Keene |Collected in ''Three Plays by Kōbō Abe'' |- |1971 |{{nihongo2|ガイド・ブック}} Gaido bukku |Guide Book | | |- |1973 |{{nihongo2|愛の眼鏡は色ガラス}} Ai no megane wa iro garasu |Loving Glasses Are Colored Ones | | |- |1974 |{{nihongo2|緑色のストッキング}} Midori iro no sutokkingu |Green Stockings |Donald Keene |Collected in ''Three Plays by Kōbō Abe'' |- |1975 |{{nihongo2|ウエー（新どれい狩り）}} Uē (Shin dorei gari) |Ue (Slave Hunting, New Version), The Animal Hunter |James R. Brandon | |- |1976 |{{nihongo2|案内人}}GUIDE BOOK II Annai nin |The Guide Man, GUIDE BOOK II | | |- |1977 |{{nihongo2|水中都市}}GUIDE BOOK III Suichu toshi |The Underwater City, GUIDE BOOK III | | |- |1978 |{{nihongo2|S・カルマ氏の犯罪}} S・Karuma shi no hanzai |The Crime of S. Karuma | | |- |1979 |{{nihongo2|仔象は死んだ}} Kozou wa shinda |An Elephant Calf Is Dead | |Adapted into a short film that was directed by Abe himself in the same year.<ref>{{Citation |last=Abe |first=Kôbô |title=Kozô wa shinda |type=Drama |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt17594162/ |access-date=2025-03-20 |others=Akira Ayaki, Yuhei Ito, Toyoake Iwaasa |publisher=Abe Kôbô Studio}}</ref> |- |}

===Essays=== {| class="wikitable" ! Year ! Japanese Title ! English Title ! Translations available ! Notes |- |1944 |{{nihongo2|詩と詩人 (意識と無意識)}} Shi to shijin [Ishiki to muishiki] |Poetry and Poets (Consciousness and the Unconscious) |Richard F. Calichman |Collected in ''The Frontier Within: Essays by Abe Kōbō'' |- |1954 |{{nihongo2|文学における理論と実践}} Bungaku ni okeru riron to jissen |Theory and Practice in Literature |Richard F. Calichman |Collected in ''The Frontier Within: Essays by Abe Kōbō'' |- |1955 |{{nihongo2|猛獣の心に計算機の手を:文学とは何か}} Mōjū no kokoro ni keisanki no te wo: Bungaku to ha nanika |The Hand of a Calculator with the Heart of a Beast: What Is Literature? |Richard F. Calichman |Collected in ''The Frontier Within: Essays by Abe Kōbō'' |- |1957 |{{nihongo2|アメリカ発見}} Amerika hakken |Discovering America |Richard F. Calichman |Collected in ''The Frontier Within: Essays by Abe Kōbō'' |- |1960 |{{nihongo2|映像は言語の壁を破壊するか}} Eizō ha gengo no kabe wo hakai suru ka |Does the Visual Image Destroy the Walls of Language? |Richard F. Calichman |Collected in ''The Frontier Within: Essays by Abe Kōbō'' |- |1960 |{{nihongo2|芸術の革命:芸術運動の理論}} Geijutsu no kakumei: Geijutsu undō no riron |Artistic Revolution: Theory of the Art Movement |Richard F. Calichman |Collected in ''The Frontier Within: Essays by Abe Kōbō'' |- |1965 |{{nihongo2|現代における教育の可能性:人間存在の本質に触れて}} Gendai ni okeru kyōiku no kanōsei: Ningen sonzai no honshitsu ni furete |Possibilities for Education Today: On the Essence of Human Existence |Richard F. Calichman |Collected in ''The Frontier Within: Essays by Abe Kōbō'' |- |1966 |{{nihongo2|隣人を超えるもの}} Rinjin wo koeru mono |Beyond the Neighbor |Richard F. Calichman |Collected in ''The Frontier Within: Essays by Abe Kōbō'' |- |1968 |{{nihongo2|ミリタリールック}} Miritarī rukku |The Military Look |Richard F. Calichman |Collected in ''The Frontier Within: Essays by Abe Kōbō'' |- |1968 |{{nihongo2|異端のパスポート}} Itan no pasupōto |Passport of Heresy |Richard F. Calichman |Collected in ''The Frontier Within: Essays by Abe Kōbō'' |- |1968 |{{nihongo2|内なる辺境}} Uchi naru henkyō |The Frontier Within |Richard F. Calichman |Collected in ''The Frontier Within: Essays by Abe Kōbō'' |- |1969 |{{nihongo2|続:内なる辺境}} Zoku: Uchi naru henkyō |The Frontier Within, Part II |Richard F. Calichman |Collected in ''The Frontier Within: Essays by Abe Kōbō'' |- |1975 |{{nihongo2|笑う月}} Warau tsuki |The Laughing Moon | | |- |1981 |桜は異端諮問間の紋章 Sakura wa itan shinmonkan no monshō |The Dark Side of the Cherry Blossoms |Donald Keene |Published in ''The Washington Post'',<ref>{{Cite news |last=Abe |first=Kobo |date=November 1981 |title=The Dark Side of the Cherry Blossoms |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/books/1981/11/01/the-dark-side-of-the-cherry-blossoms/67cf6a79-8f96-4105-b4de-141c4ed95d55/ |access-date=15 October 2022 |newspaper=The Washington Post}}</ref> ''The Guardian,'' and ''The Asahi Shinbun''<ref name=":1" /> |}

===Poetry=== {| class="wikitable" ! Year ! Japanese Title ! English Title ! Translations available ! Notes |- |1947 |{{nihongo2|無名詩集}} Mumei shishu |Poems of an Unknown Poet | | |- |1978 |{{nihongo2|人さらい}} Hito sarai |Kidnap | | |- |}

==References== {{Portal|Japan|Biography|Literature}}

==External links== {{wikiquote}} {{Commons category}} *{{ISFDB name|name=Kobo Abe}} *{{iblist name|id=7093|name=Kobo Abe}} *{{ibdof name|id=614|name=Kobo Abe}} *{{IMDb name|0008356}} * {{LCAuth|n80050848|Kōbō Abe|108|ue}} *[http://www.ibiblio.org/abekobo/index.html Abe Kobo at ibiblio.org] *{{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070922061219/http://www.litweb.net/biography/90/Kobo_Abe.html |date=September 22, 2007 |title=LitWeb.net: Kobo Abe Biography }} *{{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141009122105/http://www.themodernword.com/scriptorium/abe.html |date=October 9, 2014 |title=The Modern Word: Kobo Abe }} *{{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070310184546/http://www.centerforbookculture.org/review/02_2_inter/interview_masaki.html |date=March 10, 2007 |title=Interview with Goro Masaki about Japanese Science Fiction, large part devoted to Kobo Abe's work }} *[https://web.archive.org/web/20080530123313/http://www.horror-house.jp/e/cat4/kobo-abe-19241993.html Kōbō Abe's grave]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abe Kobo}} Category:Japanese fantasy writers Category:Japanese science fiction writers Category:Japanese male short story writers Category:People from Kita Category:Writers from Tokyo Category:1924 births Category:1993 deaths Category:University of Tokyo alumni Category:Magical realism writers Category:Akutagawa Prize winners Category:Yomiuri Prize winners Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Category:Postmodern writers Category:20th-century Japanese novelists Category:20th-century Japanese dramatists and playwrights Category:20th-century Japanese short story writers Category:20th-century Japanese male writers Category:20th-century pseudonymous writers Category:Weird fiction writers

Kōbō Abe

Connections

Linked from (128 total)

Links to (68 total)