Motojirō Kajii was a Japanese author in the early Shōwa period known for his poetic short stories. Kajii left behind masterpieces such as Remon, "Shiro no aru machi nite". Fuyu no hi and Sakura no ki no shita ni wa. His poetic works were praised by fellow writers including Yasunari Kawabata and Yukio Mishima. 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" is popularly quoted in reference to hanami, the Japanese custom of cherry blossom viewing.
In 1924, Kajii entered Tokyo Imperial University, where he studied English literature. Shortly, he planned for publish a literary coterie magazine Aozora, with his friends from high school. In 1925, Remon was published in Aozora first issue. After relinquished a graduation, Kajii had been stayed in Yugasima 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 Bungei Toshi, another literary coterie magazine.
Late career and death (1928–1932)
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 Nonki na kanja. 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.
Lemon - trans. Chinatsu Komori and Kenneth Traynor
Anthologies
"Mating" in The Shōwa Anthology - eds. Van C. Gessel and Tomone Matsumoto
"Lemon" in The Oxford Book of Japanese Short Stories - ed. Theodore W. Goossen
"Mire" in Tokyo Stories: A Literary Stroll - ed. Lawrence Rogers
"Lemon" in The Columbia Anthology of Modern Japanese Literature, Vol. 1 - 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
"A Musical Derangement" tr. Stephen Wechselblatt in New Orleans Review
"The Ascension/Drowning of K" and "Lemon" with introduction "Translating Kajii Motojiro" tr. Alfred Birnbaum in The Literary Review
"Under the Cherry Blossoms" tr. Bonnie Huie in The Brooklyn Rail
Scholarly works
Kajii Motojiro: An Anthology of Short Stories Translated into English
Three Stories of Kajii Motojiro: A Study and Translation
The Private World of Kajii Motojiro
The Translator as Reader and Writer: English Versions of Japanese Short Fiction by Kajii Motojiro
Miscellaneous amateur translations on Internet. Translations into other languages
