Eiji Yoshikawa (吉川 英治 Yoshikawa Eiji, August 11, 1892 - September 7, 1962) was a Japanese historical novelist, who is mostly retelling existing stories. Among his most well-known novels, most are revisions of past works. For instance the original manuscript of Taiko is about 15 volumes, so Yoshikawa took up the job to retell it in close and accessible language. His other books also serve similar purposes and although most of his novels aren't orignal, he had created huge amount of work and renewed the interest for the past times. He was awarded the Cultural Order of Merit in 1960 and the Mainichi Art Award just before his death in 1962, of cancer. Deservingly he is cited as one of the best Japanese and World-wide historical novelists. Jump to: navigation, search August 11 is the 223rd day of the year (224th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1892 was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Jump to: navigation, search September 7 is the 250th day of the year (251st in leap years). ... Jump to: navigation, search 1962 was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... Jump to: navigation, search A historical novel is a novel in which the story is set among historical events, or more generally, in which the time of the action predates the lifetime of the author. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1960 was a leap year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... Jump to: navigation, search 1962 was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Life

He was born Hidetsugu Yoshikawa (吉川英次 Yoshikawa Hidetsugu) in Kanagawa Prefecture, in what is now a part of Yokohama. Because of his father's failed business, he had to drop out of primary school to work when he was eleven years old. When he was 18, after a near-fatal accident working at the Yokohama docks, he moved to Tokyo and became an apprentice in a gold lacquer workshop. Around this time he became interested in comic haiku. He joined a poetry society and started writing comic haikus under the pseudonymn "Kijiro". Kanagawa Prefecture (神奈川県; Kanagawa-ken) is a geographic and political area located in the Kanto region on Honshu island, Japan. ... Jump to: navigation, search Japans tallest building, the Landmark Tower, is in the Minato Mirai 21 district of Yokohama. ... Jump to: navigation, search Long a symbol of Tokyo, the Nijubashi Bridge at the Kokyo Imperial Palace. ... In a general sense, lacquer is a clear or colored coating, that dries by solvent evaporation only and that produces a hard, durable finish that can be polished to a very high gloss, and gives the illusion of depth. ... Jump to: navigation, search Haiku (俳句) is one of the most important modes of Japanese poetry, a late 19th century revision by Masaoka Shiki of the old hokku, the opening verse of a linked verse form, haikai no renga. ...

In 1914, with The Tale of Enoshima, he won first prize in a novel-writing contest sponsored by the publisher Kodansha. He joined the newspaper Maiyu Shimbun in 1921, and in the following year he began publishing serializations, starting with Life of Shinran. Jump to: navigation, search 1914 is a common year starting on Thursday. ... Enoshima (江の島) is a small island, about 4 km in circumference, at the mouth of the Katase River, which flows into Sagami Bay in Japan. ... Kodansha (講談社 Kōdansha) is a major Japanese publisher of literature and manga, headquartered in (Bunkyo), Tokyo. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1921 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... Shinran Shonin (親鸞聖人)(1173-1262) was a pupil of Honen and the founder of the Jodo Shinshu (or True Pure Land) sect in Japan. ...

He married Yasu Akazawa in 1923, the year of the Great Kantō earthquake. His experiences in the earthquake strengthened his resolve to make writing his career. In the following years he published stories in various periodicals published by Kodansha, which recognized him as their number one author. He used 19 different pen names before settling on Eiji Yoshikawa. He first used this pen-name with the serialization of Sword Trouble, Woman Trouble. His name became a household word after Secret Record of Naruto was serialized in the Osaka Mainichi Shimbun. From then on the public's appetite for his brand of adventure writing was insatiable. Jump to: navigation, search 1923 was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... Jump to: navigation, search Great Kanto Earthquake The Great Kanto Earthquake (関東大震災 Kantō daishinsai) struck the Kanto plain on the Japanese main island of Honshu at 11:58 on the morning of September 1, 1923. ... Jump to: navigation, search Osaka Castle (ÅŒsaka-jō) Location in Japan Osaka Aquarium (Kaiyukan) Osaka railway station Azumanga Daioh. ... Mainichi-Osaka Office Mainichi-News Port The Mainichi Shimbun (毎日新聞 Mainichi Shinbun, lit. ...

In the early thirties his writing became introspective, reflecting growing troubles in his personal life. But in 1935, with the serialization of Miyamoto Musashi in the Asahi Shimbun, his writing settled firmly in the genre of historical adventure fiction. Jump to: navigation, search 1935 was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Jump to: navigation, search Miyamoto Musashi killing a nue, by Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1798-1861). ... Jump to: navigation, search Asahi-TOKYO Office Asahi-OSAKA office ASA This article is about a newspaper in Japan. ...

Upon the outbreak of war with China in 1937 the Asahi Shimbun sent him into the field as a special correspondent. At this time he also divorced Yasu Akazawa and married Fumiko Ikedo. During the war he continued writing novels, and became more influenced by Chinese culture. Among the works of this period are Taiko and his re-telling of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Jump to: navigation, search 1937 was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... Hideyoshi in old age. ... Romance of the Three Kingdoms (Simplified Chinese: 三国演义; Traditional Chinese: 三國演義, Pinyin: sān guó yǎn yì), written by Luo Guanzhong in the 14th century, is a Chinese historical novel about the turbulent period often referred to as the Three Kingdoms (220-280). ...

At the end of the war he stopped writing and settled down to a quiet retirement in Yoshino (present-day Oumeshi) on the outskirts of Tokyo, but he soon started writing again in 1947. His post-war works include New Tale of the Heike, published in the Asahi Weekly (1950), and A Private Record of the Pacific War (1958). Jump to: navigation, search 1947 was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Jump to: navigation, search The Tale of the Heike (Japanese: 平家物語, Heike monogatari) is an epic account of the struggle between the Minamoto and Taira clans for control of Japan at the end of the 12th century. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1950 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... US landings in the Pacific, 1942–1945 The Pacific War, which is known in Japan as the Greater East Asia War, occurred in the Pacific Ocean, its islands, and in Asia. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1958 was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

English translations

Four of his books have been translated into English. They are:

• Miyamoto Musashi translated as Musashi by Charles S. Terry ISBN 4-7700-1957-2
• Taiko ki translated as Taiko: An Epic Novel of War and Glory in Feudal Japan by William Scott Wilson ISBN 4-7700-2609-9
• Shin Heike monogatari translated as The Heike Story: A Modern Translation of the Classic Tale of Love and War by Fuki Wooyenaka Uramatsu. Illustrated by Kenkichi Sugimoto. ISBN 0-8048-3318-4
• Wasurenokori no ki translated as Fragments of a Past: A Memoir by Edwin McClellan ISBN 4-7700-2064-3

Born in Nashville, Tennessee, 1944. ...

Works in Print in Japanese

The Japanese publisher Kodansha currently publishes an 80-volume series: Yoshikawa Eiji Rekishi Jidai Bunko, or Eiji Yoshikawa's Historical Fiction in Paperback. Kodansha numbers the series from 1 to 80.

• 1 - 険難女難 (Kennan Jonan) - Sword Trouble, Woman Trouble
• 2 - 4 (in three volumes) - 鳴門秘帖 (Naruto Hitcho) - Secret Record of Naruto
• 5 - 7 (in three volumes) - 江戸三國志 (Edo Sangoku-shi) - The Three Kingdoms of Edo
• 8 - かんかん虫は唄う (Kankan Mushi wa Utau) - "Kan-kan the insect sings" and other stories
• 9 - 牢獄の花嫁 (Rougoku no Hanayome) - The Jail Bride
• 10 - 松の露八 (Matsu no Rohachi) - Rohachi of the Pines
• 11 - 13 (in three volumes) - 親鸞 (Shinran)
• 14 - 21 (in eight volumes) - 宮本武蔵 (Miyamoto Musashi)
• 22 - 32 (in eleven volumes) - 新書太閣記 (Shinsho Taiko ki) - Paperback Life of the Taiko
• 33 - 40 (in eight volumes) - 三國志 (Sangoku shi) - Romance of the Three Kingdoms
• 41 - 42 (in two volumes) - 源頼朝 (Minamoto Yoritomo)
• 43 - 上杉謙信 (Uesugi Kenshin)
• 44 - 黒田如水 (Kuroda Yoshitaka)
• 45 - 大岡越前 (Ooka Echizen)
• 46 - 平の将門 (Taira no Masakado)
• 47 - 62 (in sixteen volumes) - 新家物語 (Shin Heike monogatari) - New Tale of the Heike
• 63 - 70 (in eight volumes) - 私本太平記 (Shihon Taihei ki) - Private Record of the Pacific War
• 71 - 74 (in four volumes) - 新水滸伝 (Shin Suikoden) - New Tales from the Water Margin
• 75 - 治朗吉格子 (Jirokichi Goshi) - "Jirokichi Goshi" and other stories
• 76 - 柳生月影沙 (Yagyu Tsukikage sho) - "The Papers of Yagyu Tsukikage" and other stories
• 77 - 忘れ残りの記 (Wasurenokori no ki) - Record of Things Left Unforgotten
• 78 - 80 (in three volumes) - 神州天馬侠 (Shinshu Tenma Kyo)

Edo (Japanese: 江戸, literally: bay-door, estuary), once also spelled Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of the Japanese capital Tokyo. ... Minamoto no Yoritomo 源頼朝 (1147 - February 9, 1199) was the founder and first shogun of the Kamakura Shogunate of Japan, from 1192 to 1199. ... Uesugi Kenshin(上杉謙信) (February 18, 1530 - April 19, 1578) was a warlord who ruled Echigo province in the Sengoku Period of Japan. ... Taira no Masakados tomb(Burial only his head). ... Water Margin or Outlaws of the Marsh (Traditional Chinese: 水滸傳; Simplified Chinese: æ°´æµ’ä¼ ; pinyin: ShuǐhÇ” Zhuàn) is one of the four most famous classical works of Chinese literature. ...

Sources/References

The Yoshikawa Eiji House and Museum website (in Japanese)

Encyclopedia Britannica "Yoshikawa Eiji." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2003. Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service. 09 Aug, 2003 http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=80139.