HANIYA YUTAKA

(1909–1997)

Haniya Yutaka was born in Taiwan when it was a Japanese colony. He was initially drawn to anarchism, but joined the Communist Party in 1931 and was arrested and imprisoned. After World War II, he founded the small literary journal Kindai Bungaku (Modern Literature), which burgeoned into a popular periodical. Through Kindai Bungaku Haniya became acquainted with and published author Abe Kobo. Haniya won the Tanizaki Jun’ichiro Prize for his collection Yami no naka no kuroi uma (Black Horses in the Darkness, 1970).