Nogami Yaeko, nee Kotegawa Yae, was born in Usuki, Oita Prefecture, to a wealthy sake brewer. At the urging of Kinoshita Naoe, she enrolled in Meiji Jogakko, a girls’ school in Tokyo, and studied under Natsume Soseki. She later married and made her debut as an author with the short story “Enshi” (Ties of Fate, 1907) in the magazine Hototogisu (The Cuckoo) and was an active writer from then on. She served as honorary president of Hosei University and made famous the saying, “Josei de aru mae ni mazu ningen de are” (“Before being a woman, you must first be a human being”). Nogami was an active member of the proletarian literature movement and focused her writings on troubled youth and mankind’s inhumanity. She also wrote works critical of the war. Nogami received many literary awards, including the Yomiuri Prize for Meiro (Maze, 1957) the Women’s Literature Prize for Hidekichi to Rikyu (Hidekichi and Rikyu, 1964), and the Asahi Prize in 1981. In 1971, Nogami was awarded the Order of Cultural Merit. She died at age 99.
Historical dictionary of modern Japanese literature and theater. J. Scott Miller. 2009.