Uno, Chiyo

▪ 1997

      Japanese writer (b. Nov. 28, 1897, Iwakuni, Yamaguchi prefecture, Japan—d. June 10, 1996, Tokyo, Japan), deliberately flouted conservative Japanese mores by having numerous affairs and by wearing Western clothing, but by the 1970s she had gained respectability as a grande dame of Japanese letters. She also became a celebrated designer and fashion magazine publisher, and in 1990 the Japanese emperor named her a "person of cultural merit." Uno was raised in southwestern Japan, graduated from high school, and became a schoolteacher. She promptly scandalized her co-workers by wearing makeup and having an affair with a male colleague. After her first marriage failed (she married and divorced three times), Uno moved to Tokyo to develop her career as a writer. In 1921 she received her first literary recognition when she won a newspaper contest with her short story "Shifun no kao" ("A Face with Makeup"). During the 1920s and '30s, Uno had affairs with various members of Tokyo's bohemian literati and continued to defy conventional social and moral codes. In 1930 she met and began a notorious relationship with Togo Seiji, a painter famous for a failed suicide pact with his previous lover. Her first novel, Irozange (1935; Confessions of Love, 1989), was based on their five-year affair. In 1936 Uno founded Sutairu ("Style"), Japan's first Western-style fashion magazine, which was published—except for a break during World War II—until 1959. During this period she also began designing kimonos, and she continued to operate a successful boutique until her death. Her best-known and most critically acclaimed novel, Ohan, was published in 1957. A memoir, Ikite yuku watakushi (1983; "I Will Go On Living"), became a best-seller and was made into a serialized television movie.

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