Mori Mari
Encyclopedia
was a Japanese author
and daughter of famed novelist Mori Ōgai
. Born in Hongō
, Tokyo
, she began a movement of writing about male homosexual passion (tanbi shousetsu, literally "aesthetic novels") in 1961 with A Lovers' Forest, , (which won the Tamura Toshiko Prize
) and later I Don't Go on Sundays (1961) and The Bed of Dead Leaves (1962). Mori Mari was greatly influenced by her father and in A Lover's Forest, the older man can be seen as imbued with the same virtues and honor as she saw in her father. New York University
(NYU) Professor Keith Vincent has called her a "Japanese Electra," referring to the Electra complex
counterpart put forth by Carl Jung
to Sigmund Freud
's Oedipal complex.
The tanbi movement has spawned what is today known as Yaoi
. An older man and younger boy are trademarks of Mori Mari's work. The older man is extremely rich, powerful, wise, and spoils the younger boy. In The Lover's Forest, for example, the older man, Guido, is 38 or so, and Paulo is 17 or 18. (However, he is not yet 19, the age that Mori was when her father died.) Paulo is extraordinarily beautiful, prone to lounge lazily, and has a lack of willpower in all but the field of his pleasure. (Guido dies when Paolo is 19, and Paulo subsequently falls in love with a man who's been waiting in the wings, another one just like Guido.)
Her first husband was Tamaki Yamada, whom she married in 1919 and divorced in 1927. Her second husband was Akira Sato 佐藤彰.
She won the Japan Essayist Club Award in 1957 for a collection of essays called My Father's Hat. In 1975 won the 3rd Izumi Kyōka Prize for Literature
in 1975.
Mori Mari died of heart failure, on June 6, 1987.
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
and daughter of famed novelist Mori Ōgai
Mori Ogai
was a Japanese physician, translator, novelist and poet. is considered his major work.- Early life :Mori was born as Mori Rintarō in Tsuwano, Iwami province . His family were hereditary physicians to the daimyō of the Tsuwano Domain...
. Born in Hongō
Hongo
Hongō is a district of Tokyo located in Bunkyō-ku, due north of the Tokyo Imperial Palace and west of Ueno. Hongō was a ward of the former city of Tokyo until 1947, when it merged with another ward, Koishikawa, to form the modern Bunkyō....
, Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
, she began a movement of writing about male homosexual passion (tanbi shousetsu, literally "aesthetic novels") in 1961 with A Lovers' Forest, , (which won the Tamura Toshiko Prize
Toshiko Tamura
was the pen-name of an early modern feminist novelist in Showa period Japan. Her real name was .-Biography:Tamura was born in the plebeian Asakusa district of Tokyo, where her father was a rice broker. At the age of seventeen she entered the literature faculty of Nihon Joshi Daigaku Japan Women's...
) and later I Don't Go on Sundays (1961) and The Bed of Dead Leaves (1962). Mori Mari was greatly influenced by her father and in A Lover's Forest, the older man can be seen as imbued with the same virtues and honor as she saw in her father. New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
(NYU) Professor Keith Vincent has called her a "Japanese Electra," referring to the Electra complex
Electra complex
In Neo-Freudian psychology, the Electra complex, as proposed by Carl Gustav Jung, is a girl’s psychosexual competition with mother for possession of father. In the course of her psychosexual development, the complex is the girl’s phallic stage formation of a discrete sexual identity; a boy’s...
counterpart put forth by Carl Jung
Carl Jung
Carl Gustav Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist and the founder of Analytical Psychology. Jung is considered the first modern psychiatrist to view the human psyche as "by nature religious" and make it the focus of exploration. Jung is one of the best known researchers in the field of dream analysis and...
to Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis...
's Oedipal complex.
The tanbi movement has spawned what is today known as Yaoi
Yaoi
In careful Japanese enunciation, all three vowels are pronounced separately, for a three-mora word, . The English equivalent is . also known as Boys' Love, is a Japanese popular term for female-oriented fictional media that focus on homoerotic or homoromantic male relationships, usually created by...
. An older man and younger boy are trademarks of Mori Mari's work. The older man is extremely rich, powerful, wise, and spoils the younger boy. In The Lover's Forest, for example, the older man, Guido, is 38 or so, and Paulo is 17 or 18. (However, he is not yet 19, the age that Mori was when her father died.) Paulo is extraordinarily beautiful, prone to lounge lazily, and has a lack of willpower in all but the field of his pleasure. (Guido dies when Paolo is 19, and Paulo subsequently falls in love with a man who's been waiting in the wings, another one just like Guido.)
Her first husband was Tamaki Yamada, whom she married in 1919 and divorced in 1927. Her second husband was Akira Sato 佐藤彰.
She won the Japan Essayist Club Award in 1957 for a collection of essays called My Father's Hat. In 1975 won the 3rd Izumi Kyōka Prize for Literature
Izumi Kyōka Prize for Literature
Izumi Kyōka Prize for Literature is the prize for literature in Japan. It was established and started in 1973 to commemorate the 100th year since the birth of Kyōka Izumi...
in 1975.
Mori Mari died of heart failure, on June 6, 1987.
External links
- NYU Lecture Page with a summary of Prof. Vincent's lecture (see 10 Feb)
- An interview with a Japanese writer who mentions Mori
- Includes a brief summary of a paper about Mori Ōgai's daughters
- Vincent, Keith (2007) "A Japanese Electra and Her Queer Progeny" MechademiaMechademia-Reception:Steve Raiteri from Library Journal commends Mechademia as a "great first effort [...] bridg[ing] the gap between academics and fans." Christophe Thouny, writing for Animation also thought the writing and tone was accessible by both academics and fans...
2 - The Room of Sweet Honey: The Adult Shoujo Fiction of Japanese Novelist Mori Mari (1903-1987)