Koji Uno (1891-1961) -- From Failure to Laughter and to Literature 1910s-1950s

Koji Uno (1891-1961) -- From Failure to Laughter and to Literature 1910s-1950s
Born into a merchant family in Semba, Osaka, Koji Uno was plagued by poverty, illness, and debt, but with his aloof manner and self-deprecating humor he cared for the weaknesses of others. The openness of the Taisho Democracy, the publishing boom after the earthquake, and the prosperity of cafes, yoseums, and movies expanded his field of observation, but his livelihood was precarious, deepening his experience of destitution. Even as ideological controls tightened under the Showa Depression and the rise of the military, he picked up on the emotional folds of daily life rather than the principles of the program and painted a human image of the "irrepressibly good person. In the face of the postwar black market and the disintegration of values, he does not simply judge right and wrong, but brings us back to reality with his Osaka-style storytelling that turns misery upside down and turns it into laughter. His portrait, in which tongue and sweetness, indecision and gentleness coe
xist, straddles the three fault lines before, during, and after the war, and captures the dignity of human frailty.