Is fiction inherently the realm of women? Okuno Takeo. Translation

When we look at literature in Japan today in 1974, there are clear signs that women havehave a growing monopoly on the literary arts, particularly the novel. Nogami Yaeko is nearly ninety and, along with Mushanokoji Saneatsu, the most senior literary figure in Japan. Nevertheless, having been awarded the Order of Culture, she continues to work consistently and maintian a literary output that defies her age. Shimamoto Hisae, also in her eighties,completed The Aristocracy [Kizoku] while working on the epic novel The Long Flow [Choryu] Beginning in 1971 with the late Hirabayashi Taiko's reciept of the Imperial Award of the Japanese Academy of Art, older women writers have recently been showered with literary accolades