Sakaguchi Ango Daijiten (Ango Sakaguchi Encyclopedia)

This book is a comprehensive encyclopedia on Ango Sakaguchi (1906–1955), one of the leading novelists of modern Japan. The editorial representatives are Hiroshi Ando, Yuji Ohara, and Hirokazu Toeda. With 787 pages, more than 830 entries, and 374 authors, it took ten years to complete, making it the largest encyclopedia about a single author. In particular, these authors have been carefully selected by experts involved in the study of modern literature, and their descriptions are reliable and of high quality.
 
The encyclopedia consists of three parts. Part 1 is the section on keywords, in which the characteristics of Ango’s literary activities are described, alongside major topics such as movies, censorship, faith, war, and the emperor system. It is also interesting as a separate reading material and provides various suggestions when reinterpreting Ango Sakaguchi’s literature in the context of modern history, the history of thought, and the state of culture. For example, regarding censorship, the fact that the work of Ango Sakaguchi after World War II has undergone extensive revisions due to GHQ censorship has been revealed, and detailed information about this can be obtained.
 
Part 2 is the section on Ango Sakaguchi’s works, and almost all of them are covered, including his short essays. It consists of items such as bibliographic data, summaries, contemporary evaluations, and research history. Regarding research history, data such as important papers are included, and references for these items are listed at the end. Sub-items are also conveniently set for each problem with respect to Ango Sakaguchi’s representative works, and it is safe to assume that these reflect the latest status of research about them in academia at this time.
 
Part 3 is the section on facts, which includes literary figures who had direct interactions with Ango Sakaguchi, literary figures as well as foreign literature that strongly influenced him, and magazines he was deeply involved with. Another feature of this encyclopedia, including the first part, is its emphasis on media relations.
 
All the proper names that appear in the descriptions in this book are marked with an asterisk, and the pages are grouped so that the readers can conduct a search similar to the Internet, with the reference items listed at the end. Although the number of encyclopedias in print media are expected to decrease in the future, it can be said that this encyclopedia combines the advantages of print media and the Internet.
 
In addition, the photographs of valuable manuscripts are displayed in the frontispiece of this book, and Ango Sakaguchi’s chronology and index are affixed at the end.
 

(Written by ANDO Hiroshi, Professor, Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology / 2023)