Ayako Sono Writer
Ayako Sono (曽野 綾子 or 曾野 綾子, Sono Ayako, born September 17, 1931 in Tokyo) is a Catholic Japanese writer.She went to the Catholic Sacred Heart School in Tokyo after elementary school. During World War II, she evacuated to Kanazawa. After writing for the fanzines La Mancha and Shin-Shicho (新思潮: New Thought), she was recommended by Masao Yamakawa, an established critic at the time, to Mita Bungaku, for which she wrote Enrai No Kyaku Tachi (遠来の客たち: Visitors from Afar), one of the shortlisted stories for the Akutagawa Prize in 1954. In 1953, she married Shumon Miura (三浦 朱門), one of the members of Shin-Shicho.The naming of “the Bas Bleu Era” (才女時代: Saijo-Jidai) by the writer and critic Yoshimi Usui famously described the prosperous activities of female writers including Sono or Sawako Ariyoshi—one of her contemporary who had published many reputable books that are still being read.In the history of Japanese literature, Sono belongs to the category of “the Third Generation” together with Shusaku Endo, Shōtarō Yasuoka, Junnosuke Yoshiyuki, Nobuo Kojima, Junzo Shono, Keitaro Kondo, Hiroyuki Agawa, Shumon Miura, Tan Onuma, and Toshio Shimao.
