Renzaburo Shibata (1917-1978) -- Popular Writer Cutting Through the Postwar Darkness 1945-1960s

Renzaburo Shibata (1917-1978) -- Popular Writer Cutting Through the Postwar Darkness 1945-1960s
Renzaburo Shibata emerged amidst the chaos, hunger, and collapse of values immediately after the defeat in World War II. His masterpiece "Sleepy Kyoshiro" enthralled readers, including young women, with its paradoxical charm of a beautiful swordsman who lacks human warmth and cuts coldly. The author felt that behind the popularity of the story reflected the repressed violence and feelings of victimization of the common people, and looked at the pathology of postwar society. She lived in poverty for a long time and continued to write for small manuscript fees for magazines such as Kastori, and at times she even played pachinko to make ends meet. Although he was ridiculed by the purists for being too commonplace, he was supported by the overwhelming support of mass readers and sharpened his style with "fun" as his weapon of choice. The eroticism and violence of his works are not glorification but expression of the depression and desire for purification in an age of broken value
s, and Shibata captured the desires and sorrows of the postwar Japanese through his sword-and-sorcery novels.