Mariko Hayashi (born 1954) is a Japanese novelist and essayist from Yamanashi Prefecture. After graduating in literary arts from Nihon University’s College of Art, she worked as a copywriter before launching her writing career with the 1982 essay collection “Runrun o Katte Ouchi ni Kaero.” She won the Naoki Prize in 1986 for “Saishubin ni Maniaeba” and “Kyoto made,” the Eiji Yoshikawa Literary Prize in 1998, the Kikuchi Kan Prize in 2020, and the Noma Publishing Culture Award in 2022. She received Japan’s Medal with Purple Ribbon in 2018. Across contemporary fiction, historical novels, and essays, she explores love, marriage, work, aspirations to social status, and the influence of other people’s judgments. The poet Byakuren Yanagihara’s struggle between marriage and personal choice is depicted in “Byakuren Renren,” a historical novel drawing on documentary sources. Set in the Taisho period, it follows Byakuren, the wife of a wealthy Kyushu coal magnate, as she falls in love with the younger Ryusuke Miyazaki and leaves her husband. The novel examines the conflict between a position determined by family background and wealth and a woman’s determination to choose her own life. It won the Renzaburo Shibata Prize in 1995. Her experiences of professional setbacks and success inform “Yashin no Susume,” an essay on the value of ambition. Recalling rejected job applications, financial hardship, literary success, and public criticism, Hayashi considers setting goals, investing in oneself, and building on small achievements. A family confronting prolonged social withdrawal is portrayed in “Shosetsu 8050,” a novel about dentist Masaki Osawa, whose son has remained in his room for seven years. As Osawa tries to understand what happened to his son, he confronts his own concern for appearances and discovers divisions within his relationships with his wife and daughter. The story follows the family’s efforts to address problems they have kept hidden.
