Naoya Shiga (1883–1971) was a Japanese novelist and a central figure of the Shirakaba literary movement. In 1910, he helped found the magazine “Shirakaba” with writers including Saneatsu Mushanokoji and Takeo Arishima. Drawing on personal experience and family conflict, Shiga developed an autobiographical form of fiction distinguished by concise prose and precise observation. He received Japan’s Order of Culture in 1949. His only full-length novel, “Anya Koro,” published in English as “A Dark Night’s Passing,” follows the writer Kensaku Tokito as he confronts the secret of his birth, conflict with his father, and a crisis in his marriage before seeking peace on Mount Daisen.
