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ICU alumnus and Akutagawa Prize winner Hikaru Okuizumi gives lecture

Update: March 13, 2019

On Monday, February 25, Prof. Hikaru Okuizumi, an ICU alumnus (he graduated from college in 1980 and graduate school in 1982) and Akutagawa Prize-winning author, gave a lecture entitled "On the Subject of Realist Novels in Japanese" at the Open Lecture held by the Institute for the Study of Christianity and Culture.

In the lecture, Prof. Okuizumi discussed the realist novel technique he also used in his latest novel Yuki no kizahashi (Staircase of snow) (Chuokoron-Shinsha), which won the Mainichi Publishing Culture Award and Shibata Renzaburo Award. Prof. Okuizumi explained that realist novels spread in Japan from the Meiji Era and talked about their roots in Japan by listing examples such as Ukigumo (The Drifting Cloud) by Futabatei Shimei, which is said to have opened up new possibilities, and the subsequent Musashino (The Musashi Plain) by Doppo Kunikida.

In the question and answer session following the lecture, the participants, who crowded the venue to capacity, asked questions till the end of the scheduled time regarding topics such as the driving force behind Prof. Okuizumi's zest to continue writing his works, the issues regarding a novel's narration and language, and the metamorphosis of realist novels in Japan.