Foreword

Yamasaki Toyoko，or Sugimoto Toyoko，was born in 1924 in Osaka，Japan.Graduating from Kyoto Women's University in 1944，she worked as a journalist of Literature and Art Department in Osaka Honsha of “Mainichi Newspaper”，serving under Inoue Yasushi，a famous writer who was the Deputy Minister of this department at that time.After work，she was engaged in literary writing.Her first story Noren came out in 1957 and in the following year，she won “the 39th Naoki Prize”for her serial novel Hana Noren.She resigned from the newspaper office and started to concentrate on literary creation in the same year.Her early works were mainly descriptions of Kansai（Osaka）customs.Since the 1960s，critical realism gradually played a dominant role in her works.In 1963 her serial novel Shiroikyot? began to be published in installments in Sunday Mainichi and strong social reverberation was aroused because of her incisive writing style.Once again，the Japanese literature cataclysm burst as the “War Trilogy”，F(xiàn)um? Chitai，Two Homelands（Futatsu no Sokoku）and Daichi no Ko were published in succession.In 1999，her novel Shizumanu Taiy? was published and in 2009，she published Unm?nohito.Because of the sharp questions interrogating the reality of Japanese society and thorough analyses of the dark side of society in her works，she became the representative of Japan's “social school”．In 1991，she won “the 39th Kikuchi Kan Prize”for her enormous contribution to Japanese literature.In 2009，85-year-old Yamasaki Toyoko won “the 63rd Daily Publishing Culture Award”for her work Unm?nohito.

Social novel plays an extremely important role in Japanese literature in that it gets rid of the traditional ideas that Japanese literature used to follow，such as avoidance of major social problems and the ignorance of con卍icts and that it shapes distinctive characters boldly and creates vivid and typical images of social groups based on the people and events the authors are familiar with.Besides，it exposes deeply a variety of social contradictions and the real events which are “deliberately forgotten”at different stages in Japan.

Yamasaki Toyoko and her social fictions are the exotic flowers in Japanese realist literature.Yamasaki，known as a “people's writer”，used her incisive style of writing to rationally interpret social problems and historical issues in Japan.Yasunari Kawabata（1899—1972）was “amazed at the author's acute observation and lively language”．He felt that after reading Yamasaki's works，“when you know her value finally，you will again respect her and her works”．This is because “From the businessmen in Osaka Senba to the prostitutes in the red-light districts，she has investigated personally，trying her best to describe every scene and character vividly.It is a work combined with her interests and the materials that she is familiar with; its excellence is beyond words.”

Yamasaki Toyoko had created 8 short stories，1 novella and 16 novels.In her writing career，her material-choosing is always comprehensive，detailed and in-depth and her writing style is always bold，real and objective.In order to re卍ect social problems as truly as possible，Yamasaki Toyoko visited many places in Japan and abroad.Yamasaki went abroad several times and went through hardships to create “War Trilogy”whose theme is anti-war.She persisted in finding true material and covered more than ten countries and regions in Asia，Europe and America.

However，during her writing process，Yamasaki was often isolated and even attacked for exposing too many deep social problems and secret events.She exposed the upper class and government behavior in her works boldly through her keen sense and unique insight.Therefore，although nearly each of her works was long-selling，she did not get too many literary awards.She is such a social novelist，who is plain，dares to love and hate，and takes literary creation as her first life at any time.Characters in her works are imagery，of different personalities and full of卍avor of the times.By describing these typical characters and events，various realistic problems and complex conflicts in all aspects and all strata of Japanese society are fully exposed，and thus her works have caused wide concern in society and created the greatest resonance with readers.Zhao Deyuan，a scholar of Japanese literature said：“Outstanding long novels，such as Shiroikyot?，Karei naru Ichizoku and Fum? Chitai，mark the new peak of popular literature of realism.”

In today's Japan，popular literature is becoming more and more active.Yamasaki's novels catch tens of thousands of readers’ eyes in Japan and abroad for her typical materials and distinct writing style.The evaluation of Yamasaki as well as the evaluation of the literary value and social value of her works is a far-reaching work.Summarizing the rules and characteristics of her novels will not only help the popularity and study of social novels and even popular literature but also help people understand Japan deeper through the mirror of literature.

Although Yamasaki Toyoko's social novels are transmitted through books，films and televisions，etc.in Japan widely and she herself has become a well-known “social school”writer for a long time，little research about her original works has been carried out yet.In Japan，since 1960，the number of papers about Yamasaki or her novels is about100 or so and there are only three monographs contributed to the study of Yamasaki Toyoko，all of which were published after 2000．In China，her novels have been published in succession in the latest 40 years.Films and television works based on her original ones are also put up．Now，“Yamasaki Toyoko”is a name familiar to those who are paying attention to Japan.In China，relevant information about Yamasaki and her works can be roughly divided into two parts：some are the compilations of Yamasaki's original works as well as descriptions of her works; the others are the papers based on literary criticism and interview notes.The former from the perspective of quantity and in卍uence is significantly more and higher than the latter.At present，no special research results have been found that systematically and deeply explore Yamasaki's works from the perspective of literary connotation，writing techniques and characterization etc.in China.Published literature reviews that can be found are mainly comparative studies of her social novels from social impact perspective.This book analyzes from the following aspects.

Chapter 1，the introduction，mainly makes the necessary instructions about the significance of the research，the past and present studies，the research questions and methods etc.It establishes the long novel-based principle，carries on traditional text analysis through characters in original works，traces to the source and tries to avoid the interference of films and television works to literary criticism.Also，this chapter unifies the Chinese translations of the novel titles，and defines the key concepts such as “Japanese orphans”and “Siberian labor”.

Chapter 2 discusses how to interpret literariness of social novels.Generally speaking，social novel has a strong sense of social criticism，and people focus more on the distinct perspective and careful selection of the work.In essence，any work is characterized by the characteristics embodied in the literature itself.Thus，how to put social novel back to the range of literature and then consider its unique artistic characteristics is particularly important.

Chapter 3 focuses on the introduction of literary creation stages of Yamasaki Toyoko and provides the prerequisites for follow-up study.There are various means of classification for Yamasaki Toyoko's literary creation stages.Classification methods differ due to different periods，countries and perspectives.In 1975，up to Toyoko's creation of Karei naru Ichizoku，literary critic Aochi Shin（1909—1984）once divided Yamasaki Toyoko's works into three stages.In 1982，Tang Yuemei，an expert on Japanese literature，took Yamasaki Toyoko's Shiroikyotō as the divide and considered Yamasaki's works before Shiroikyotō as the first stage，the works after Shiroikyotō as the second stage.According to the time and content of creation，this book divides Yamasaki's literary creation into four stages：trial period，development period，peak period and low production period.

Chapter 4 emphasizes aesthetic sense in Yamasaki's novels.Throughout all her works，the usage of Kansai dialect and female language，the description of customs and traditions in Osaka and the portrayal of vivid characters all reflect her unique writing style，and make her works stand on Japanese literary world.

Chapter 5 makes a detailed study of anti-war thought of Yamasaki's novels.From her first story Noren，Yamasaki's idea of “to respect life and to promote harmony”runs through her entire writing career.The interwoven elements of “return”and “peace”re卍ect more of her revulsion of war.Anti-war thought reflects more in her later work “War Trilogy”．Taking “sadness”as the main tone，her novel avoids too many grand war scenes，only uses the special time and environment of war，and reveals the vicissitudes of life in order to re卍ect the cruelty of war and express war-weariness and anti-war feelings.How to shape typical characters by literary techniques and reflect the theme in a subtle way by means of depicting characters’ psychological activity and personality changes etc.is the key to accurately comprehend the true meaning of Yamasaki's works and her anti-war thought.

Chapter 6 summarizes the unique characteristics of Yamasaki's literary works.Yamasaki favors comprehensive investigations into related issues; this favor even develops into a special hobby.Thus the value of her works，bearing profound social value，is far beyond the scope of literature.Of course，collecting first-hand materials is not an easy job.“Materials are difficult to find”，as Yamasaki claims，comparing it with writing.This also marks the uniqueness of her works.The “tentativeness”and “foresight”，characteristics embodied in her works，will bring strong reactions in society.However，subjectivity unavoidably exists，and the content in卍uenced by her stereotypes is not absolutely comprehensive or objective.