Kenzaburo Oe

Kenzaburo Oe was born in 1935 in a village on Shikoku, the island located southeast of mainland Japan. After studying French Literature at the University of Tokyo, he won his first literary award—the renowned "Akutagawa Prize"—for his short story "The Catch" at the age of twenty-three. Despite the fame the award brought him, a novel published the following year (Our Age) received harsh criticism for its nihilism during what was supposed to be a new, brilliant period in Japanese history. In 1994, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.