was a Japanese writer and translator of English and Russian literature. She was a recipient of the Women's Literature Prize, the

Yomiuri Prize The is a literary award in Japan. The prize was founded in 1949 by the Yomiuri Shimbun Company to help form a "strong cultural nation". The winner is awarded two million Japanese yen and an inkstone. Award categories For the first two years, ...

, and Japan Academy of the Arts prize.

Biography

Amino was born in Azabu Mamiana-cho and raised in Akasaka,

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

, where her father was a well-to-do sadler. Her mother left when Amino was six, after which she had three stepmothers. She graduated from the

Japan Women's University is the oldest and largest of private Japanese women's universities. The university was established on 20 April 1901 by education reformist . The university has around 6000 students and 200 faculty. It has two campuses, named after the neighbo ...

in 1920 with a degree in English, then worked as a part-time assistant editor at a magazine, and from 1921-1926 a substitute English teacher at the university. In 1921 she published a self-financed collection of stories entitled ''Aki'' (Autumn), and in 1923 met author

Shiga Naoya was a Japanese writer active during the Taishō and Shōwa periods of Japan, whose work was distinguished by its lucid, straightforward style and strong autobiographical overtones. Early life Shiga was born in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, ...

whose disciple she became. She married in 1930, living in Hooten,

Manchuria Manchuria is a historical region in northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day northeast China and parts of the modern-day Russian Far East south of the Uda (Khabarovsk Krai), Uda River and the Tukuringra-Dzhagdy Ranges. The exact ...

, from 1930–1938, but divorced in 1936. She did not publish while married, but made a comeback with a collection of short stories called ''Kisha no nakade'' (On the Train) in 1940. She was a member of the

Japan Art Academy is the highest-ranking official artistic organization in Japan. It is established as an extraordinary organ of the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs (文化庁, Bunkacho) in the thirty-first article of the law establishing the Ministry of ...

and received the 1947 Women's Literature Prize for ''Kin no kan'' (A Golden Coffin), and the 1967

and Japan Academy of the Arts prize for her short story ''Ichigo ichie'' (Once in a Lifetime). She is buried in Aoyama Reien, 2-32-2 Minami Aoyama, where Shiga Naoya is also buried.

References

Sources

* Donald Keene, ''Dawn to the West: Japanese literature of the modern era, fiction'', Volume 1, 2nd edition, Columbia University Press, 1998, pages 528–531. . * Japanese Wikipedia article
Prominent People of Minato City (with photo)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Amino Kiku 1900 births 1978 deaths People from Minato, Tokyo Writers from Tokyo Yomiuri Prize winners Burials at Aoyama Cemetery