Motojirō Kajii

Today his works are admired for their finely tuned self-observation and descriptive power. Despite the limited body of work he created during his short lifetime, Kajii has managed to leave a lasting footprint on Japanese culture. "Lemon" is a staple of literature textbooks. According to a report in major daily newspaper Asahi Shimbun, many high school students have emulated the protagonist's defiant act of leaving a lemon in the book section of Maruzen, a department store chain. The opening line of "Under the Cherry Trees" (Dead bodies are buried under the cherry trees!) is popularly quoted in reference to hanami, the Japanese custom of cherry blossom viewing.

• Name — Motojirō Kajii 梶井 基次郎 • Born — 17 February 1901 • Birthplace — Nishi-ku, Osaka, Japan • Died — 24 March 1932 • Place of death — Oji-cho, Sumiyoshi-ku (now:Abeno-ku), Osaka • Resting Place — Minami-ku (now:Chūō-ku), Osaka • Occupation — Writer • Language — Japanese • Education — University of Tokyo (withdrew) • Period — 1925 – 1932 • Genre — Short story, Prose poetry • Movement — (I-Novel) • Notable Works — * Lemon (1925) • In a Castle Town (1925) • Winter Days (1927) • Flies of Winter (1928) • Beneath the Cherry Trees (1928) • The Scroll of Darkness (1930) • The Easygoing Patient (1932)

Kajii was born in Osaka in 1901. He attended primary school in Tokyo from 1910 to 1911, middle school in Toba from 1911 to 1913, and Osaka Prefectural Kitano High School from 1914 to 1919. In September 1919, Kajii entered Kyoto's Third Higher School (Kyoto-Sanko, a junior college), where his roommate was Tadashi Iijima. While a student there in 1920, he was diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis.

In 1924, Kajii entered Tokyo Imperial University, where he studied English literature. Shortly, he planned for publish a literary coterie magazine 青空, with his friends from high school. In 1925, "Lemon" was published in Aozora first issue. After relinquished a graduation, Kajii had been stayed in "Yugasima Onsen" on the Izu Peninsula between 1927 and 1928, hoping to recuperate. During that time, he visited the writer Yasunari Kawabata, whom he befriended. The two writers would play go together several times a week. After Aozora ceased publication in 1927, Kajii's works appeared in "The Literary City", another literary coterie magazine.

In September 1928, Kajii returned to Osaka, where he spent a period of convalescence at home. Sensing his impending death, friends including the poet Tatsuji Miyoshi and Ryūzō Yodono decided to publish his first book, a collection of his short stories titled Lemon in 1931. In 1932, he wrote his first novella, titled "The Easygoing Patient". Its publication in Chūōkōron, which had commissioned the work, was Kajii's first in the commercial magazine. On March 24, 1932, Kajii died of tuberculosis at age 31.

Monographs • The Youth of Things: Life and Death in the Age of Kajii Motojiro (2014) - ed. Stephen Dodd • Lemon (2009) - trans. Chinatsu Komori and Kenneth Traynor Anthologies • "Mating" in The Shōwa Anthology (1984) - eds. Van C. Gessel and Tomone Matsumoto • "Lemon" in The Oxford Book of Japanese Short Stories (1997) - ed. Theodore W. Goossen • "Mire" in Tokyo Stories: A Literary Stroll (2002) - ed. Lawrence Rogers • "Lemon" in The Columbia Anthology of Modern Japanese Literature, Vol. 1 (2005) - eds. J. Thomas Rimer and Van C. Gessel • "The Lemon," "The Ascension of K, or His Death by Drowning," and "Feelings Atop a Cliff" in Modanizumu; Modernist Fiction from Japan, 1913-1938 - ed. William Jefferson Tyler • "Scenes of the Mind" in Three-Dimensional Reading: Stories of Time and Space in Japanese Modernist Fiction, 1911-1932 - ed. Angela Yiu Literary magazines • "Beneath the Cherry Trees" tr. John Bester in The Japan P.E.N. News (1964) • "A Musical Derangement" tr. Stephen Wechselblatt in New Orleans Review (1983) • "The Ascension/Drowning of K" and "Lemon" with introduction "Translating Kajii Motojiro" tr. Alfred Birnbaum in The Literary Review (1996) • "Under the Cherry Blossoms" tr. Bonnie Huie in The Brooklyn Rail (2014) Scholarly works • Kajii Motojiro: An Anthology of Short Stories Translated into English (1977) • Three Stories of Kajii Motojiro: A Study and Translation (1978) • The Private World of Kajii Motojiro (1982) • The Translator as Reader and Writer: English Versions of Japanese Short Fiction by Kajii Motojiro (1982) Miscellaneous amateur translations on Internet (see external links below). Translations into other languages As of 2007 • French: Le citron (1987, 1996) – partial translation of Remon (stories #1,8,9,10,11,13,16,18) • Russian: Limon (2004) – full translation of Remon (stories #1–18) • German: Bildrolle der Finsternis (2023) – partial translation of Remon (stories #1,2,10,11,15,18,20)

Stories in magazines • "Keikichi" - May 1923 • "The Truth like a Contradiction" - July 1923 • "Lemon" – January 1925 • "Shiro no aru machi nite" - February 1925 • "Deinei" - July 1925 • "On the Road" - October 1925 • "Tochi no hana" - November 1925 • "In the Past", "The Past" - January 1926 • "After the Snow" - June 1926 • "a Variation of Motif to 心中, 4th Collection of Yasunari Kawabata's Short stories" - July 1926 • "A Landscape of the Soul", "Landscapes of the Heart" - August 1926 • "The Ascension of K, or K's Drowning", "The Ascension/Drowning of K" - October 1926 • 冬の日 - February, April 1927 • 蒼穹 - March 1928 • "The Bamboo Pipe", "The Story of the Bamboo Pipe" – April 1928 • "Instrumental Hallucinations", "A Musical Derangement", "Instrumental Illusions" – May 1928 • "Flies of Winter", "Winter Flies" – May 1928 • "Feelings Atop a Cliff", "Certain Feelings on a Cliff Top" – July 1928 • "Beneath the Cherry Trees", "Under the Cherry Trees" – December 1928 • 愛撫 – June 1930 • "The Scroll of Darkness", "Scroll of Darkness" – September 1930 • 交尾 – January 1931 • "The Easygoing Patient", "The Carefree Patient" – January 1932, novella (Unpublished or unfinished works included in Complete Works are not listed above.) Books • "Lemon" – May 1931, collection (stories #1–18) • -- posthumously -- • Kajii Motojirō Complete Works, Vol.1 and 2 – 1934 (ed. Takao Nakatani, Ryūzō Yodono) Rokuhō Shoin • Kajii Motojirō Complete Works, Vol. 1 – 1947 (ed. Ryūzō Yodono) Kyoto: Kōtō Shoin • Kajii Motojirō Complete Works, Vol. 2 – 1948 (ed. Ryūzō Yodono) Kyoto: Kōtō Shoin • "Wakaki shijin no tegami" – 1955, selected correspondence. 1955 (ed. Ryūzō Yodono) Kadokawa Shoten • Kajii Motojirō Complete Works Definitive edition, Vol. 1-3 – 1959 (ed. Ryūzō Yodono, Takao Nakatani) Tokyo: Chikuma Shobō. Reprinted in 1966. • Kajii Motojirō Complete Works, Vol. 1-3 and supplementary – 1999-2000 (ed. Sadami Suzuki) Tokyo: Chikuma Shobō