OBA MINAKO

(1930–2007)

Oba Minako was an author and social critic from Tokyo. Her father served as a rescue worker in Hiroshima after the atomic bombing, and Oba’s experiences there generated her interest in literature. Oba graduated from Tsudajuku University and followed her husband’s job to Alaska, where she wrote her first novel, Sanbiki no kani (1968; tr. The Three Crabs, 1978), which depicted American life and was awarded the Akutagawa Ryunosuke Prize. Along with novels, Oba also wrote essays, literary criticism, poetry, anthologies, and translated children’s literature from English into Japanese. Oba served on many committees, including the Akutagawa Prize selection committee and as vice president of the Japan P.E.N. Club. She was awarded eight literary prizes in all, including the Kawabata Yasunari Prize twice (1989, 1996), the Tanizaki Jun’ichiro Prize (1982), the Women’s Literature Prize (1975), the Noma Prize (1986), the Murasaki Shikibu Literary Prize (2003), and the Yomiuri Prize (1991).