WSada Abe was a Japanese geisha and prostitute who murdered her lover, Kichizō Ishida , via erotic asphyxiation on May 18, 1936, and then cut off his penis and testicles and carried them around with her in her kimono. The story became a national sensation in Japan, acquiring mythic overtones, and has been interpreted by artists, philosophers, novelists and filmmakers. Abe was released after having served five years in prison and went on to write an autobiography.
WMoyoco Anno is a Japanese manga artist and fashion writer, with numerous books published in both categories. Her work Sugar, Sugar Rune won the Kodansha manga award for children in 2005. Anno is married to director Hideaki Anno of Neon Genesis Evangelion fame. Anno has aspired to being a manga artist since her third year at elementary school.
WSawako Ariyoshi was a Japanese writer, known for such works as The Doctor's Wife and The River Ki. She was known for her advocacy of social issues, such as the elderly in Japanese society, and environmental issues. Several of her novels describe the relationships between mothers and their daughters. She also had a fascination with traditional Japanese arts, such as kabuki and bunraku. She also described racial discrimination in the United States, something she experienced firsthand during her time at Sarah Lawrence, and the depopulation of remote Japanese islands during the 1970s economic boom.
WMoto Hagio is a Japanese manga artist born on May 12, 1949 in Ōmuta, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. She lives in Saitama Prefecture. She is considered a "founding mother" of modern shōjo manga, especially shōnen-ai. She is also a member of the Year 24 Group. She has been described as "the most beloved shōjo manga artist of all time." In addition to being an "industry pioneer", her body of work "shows a maturity, depth and personal vision found only in the finest of creative artists".
WMichiko Inukai was a Japanese Roman Catholic author and philanthropist. She was the founder of the Michiko Inukai Foundation, which provides financial aid for refugees seeking education.
WAkatsuki Kambayashi , pseudonym of Tokohiro Iwaki, was a noted Japanese author in the I Novel genre.
WTakeo Kimura was a Japanese art director, writer and film director. Beginning his career in 1945 he art-directed well over 200 films. He was one of Japan's best known art directors, most famously for his collaborations with cult director Seijun Suzuki through the 1960s at the Nikkatsu Company, exemplified by Tokyo Drifter (1966). Other directors with whom he frequently worked include Toshio Masuda, Kazuo Kuroki, Kei Kumai and Kaizo Hayashi. At age 90 he made his feature film directorial debut with Dreaming Awake (2008). He had also worked as a critic, writer, painter, photographer and teacher.
WAya Kitō was a Japanese diarist. She wrote about her personal experiences living with spinocerebellar ataxia which was later published in the book 1 Litre no Namida.
WHideo Kojima is a Japanese video game designer, director, producer and writer.
WTakeko Kujō was a humanitarian and founder of the Buddhist Women's Association in order to promote the status and solidarity of Buddhist women in Japan, and later overseas.
WAkira Kurosawa was a Japanese film director, screenwriter, and producer who directed 30 films in a career spanning 57 years. He is regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema.
WAyame Mizushima was a Japanese novelist and screenwriter, commonly referred to as the first woman to have received on screen credit in Japan.
WMichio Morishima was a Japanese heterodox economist and public intellectual who was the Sir John Hicks Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics from 1970–88. He was also professor at Osaka University and member of the British Academy. In 1976 he won the Order of Culture.
WMotokichiro Osaka was a Japanese pastor, theologian, and newspaper columnist. He is notable for his public criticism of efforts by the Japanese government to regulate religious bodies and strengthen a national form of Shinto, which culminated in a government-backed attack that left Osaka close to death. During his recovery, a personal awakening transformed his conceptualization of Christianity from an earthly, altruistic social practice to an ascetic practice rooted in Catholic orthodoxy.
WChiyo Uno was a female Japanese author who wrote several notable works and was a known kimono designer. She had a significant influence on Japanese fashion, film and literature. She was born in a section of Iwakuni known as Kawanishi, "west of the river." Following an initial literary success and winning of a short story prize, Uno left her first husband and moved to Tokyo. Like many young Japanese of the 1920s, Uno was fascinated with American and European culture and dress and was one of the first women in Japan to bob her hair like a flapper. Beyond hairstyles, Uno also began to pursue the life of a free-spirited woman. She wanted to be a mo ga, or modern girl, and not confined to just the role of supportive wife and mother. She became part of the Bohemian world of Tokyo, having liaisons with other writers, poets and painters.
WTetsuro Watsuji was a Japanese moral philosopher, cultural historian, and intellectual historian.
WRiichi Yokomitsu was an experimental, modernist Japanese writer.
WYosano Akiko was the pen-name of a Japanese author, poet, pioneering feminist, pacifist, and social reformer, active in the late Meiji period as well as the Taishō and early Shōwa periods of Japan. Her name at birth was Shō Hō . She is one of the most noted, and most controversial, post-classical woman poets of Japan.
WYuasa Yoshiko was a Russian language scholar and translator of Russian literature in Shōwa period Japan.
WShigeko Yuki was a Japanese writer.