Yoshiko Shibaki

was a Japanese writer of short stories and novels. She was awarded numerous prizes for her work, including the Akutagawa Prize and the Women's Literature Prize. In 1941, she married economist Kiyoshi Oshima. while her literary output lessened. After the war, she published stories like Nagareru hi (lit. "The coursing sun"), Onna hitori (lit. "A woman alone") and Ruri no uta (lit. "The journey song") which thematised domestic social changes. In the 1950s, she gained critical attention with Susaki paradaisu (lit. "Susaki paradise") and Yakoo no onna (lit. "Women in illumination"), both fictional accounts of Tokyo's prostitution milieu. Her trilogy of biographical stories, Yuba (lit. "Soya extract"), Sumidagawa (lit. "The river Sumida") and Marounuchi hachigokan (lit. "Marounuchi building number eight"), published between 1960 and 1962, are regarded as highlights in her literary career.

She became a member of the Japan Art Academy in 1980, and received their Award for the Literary Arts in 1981. Her novel Sumidagawa boshoku (隅田川暮色, lit. "Dusk on the Sumida river") won the Shincho Literary Award and the Nihon Literature Prize.

Shibaki died of breast cancer on 25 August 1991.

Bibliography (selected) Seika no ichi (青果の市), 1941 Susaki paradaisu- Susaki Paradise (洲崎パラダイス), 1954 Yuba (湯葉), 1960 Yoru no tsuru- The Night Crane (夜の鶴), 1964 Katsushika no onna (葛飾の女), 1965 Asu o shirazu (明日を知らず), 1968 Kazahana (風花), 1970 Kiiroi Kotei (黄色い皇帝), 1976 Onna no shozo (女の肖像), 1979 Sumidagawa boshoku (隅田川暮色), 1984 Susaki no onna (洲崎の女), 1994

Film adaptations (selected) 1956: Suzaki Paradise: Red Light (dir. Yūzō Kawashima), based on Susaki paradaisu 1956: Street of Shame (dir. Kenji Mizoguchi), based on Yakoo no onna