Shiga Naoya (surname first in Japanese) is generally regarded as the leading practitioner of the shishōsetsu (literally, “I-novel”, Ich-Roman), the form of autobiographical or semi-autobiographical novel or short story that is the major genre of modern Japanese literary (as opposed to popular) fiction. As such, he was certainly one of the most influential Japanese writers of the 20th century within his own country. This latter qualification is significant because Shiga never attained anything like the renown abroad that he enjoyed at home. No doubt this was because the shishōsetsu genre itself depends for its appeal largely on certain culture-specific factors such as the traditional Confucian privileging of “sincere confession” over “literary fabrication” and the intense interest that the Japanese reading public has in every last detail of a writer’s life. More specifically, there is also...
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Citation: Starrs, Roy Anthony. "Naoya Shiga". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 06 December 2010 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=12901, accessed 06 June 2026.]
