Yoshiyuki, Junnosuke

▪ 1995

      Japanese novelist and short-story writer (b. April 1, 1923, Okayama, Japan—d. July 26, 1994, Tokyo, Japan), explored human sexuality and prostitution as a means of understanding human relationships. His prize-winning works include the short story "Shuu" (1954; "Sudden Shower," 1972), and the novels Anshitsu (1969: The Dark Room, 1975) and Yugure made (1978: "Until Evening"), the latter of which won the Noma Literary Prize. Yoshiyuki, a confessional writer in the Japanese genre "I novel," documented his own sexual adventures in wartime Tokyo in Honoo no naka (1956; "Among the Flames"). An asthmatic condition precluded military service during World War II, allowing him to write. Though he entered Tokyo University in 1945 and helped launch a small literary magazine, Ashi ("Reed"), Yoshiyuki ended his English literature studies to work for a scandal magazine. He found grist for his works by frequenting Tokyo's bars, cabarets, and gay quarters. He contracted tuberculosis in 1954 and during his hospitalization wrote "Shuu," which chronicled with detached objectivity his relationship with a prostitute. This first story won the Akutagawa Prize and secured his reputation. One of his novels, Suna no ue no shokubutsugun (1963; "Vegetable Garden in the Sand"), became a best-seller. At the time of his death, Yoshiyuki was working on a novel, Medama ("Eyeballs").

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