NOTA |
(★)(Translated by Ian MacDonald)(Titulo original : Koiwasuregusa, [恋忘れ草, 1993])(´NI-0545´ es mismo libro./ This Naoki Prize-winning work is a personal yet precise account of the lives of working women in the Edo period [1600-1868]. In the latter half of the Edo period, the warrior caste was finding itself pushed out of the top echelons of society by the rising merchant class, and repeated famines swept the countryside. Against this backdrop, a small number of women vigorously built themselves independent lives with unusual careers -working as designers of ornamental hairpins, or even scribes- in the male-dominated society of the day./ The stories in ´The Budding Tree´ recount the conditions in which these women lived./ ◆Aiko Kitahara was born in Tokyo´s Shimbashi district. After graduating from Chiba Prefectural Girls´ High School she joined an advertising firm, beginning her creative work on the side. She won the Shincho Prize for New Writers for her debut work, the 1969 ´Mama wa shiranakatta yo [Mom Didn´t Know].´ She has gained a widespread following for her elegant style and for her detailed images of the everyday lives of Edo-period Japanese. Many of her works have been adapted for television.) |