March 4, 2026
TOKYO – Manuscripts of two unpublished early novellas by Nobel Prize laureate Kenzaburo Oe have been discovered, it was announced at a press conference held by the University of Tokyo on Monday.
They are believed to have been written before his debut, while he was still a student at the university.
According to the university, sex, politics and other thematic subjects are richly depicted in the two works, which are precious materials showing budding promise for what would later form Oe’s literature.
One of the two novellas, “Kurai Heya kara no Ryoko” (A journey from a dark room), is written on 82 pieces of genkoyoshi writing paper and features young students and a university faculty member who claims his human rights have been violated.
It is dated “1955, 5.19” (May 19, 1955) at the end. Oe was 20 at the time, and it was before 1957 when he wrote “Shisha no Ogori” (“Lavish Are The Dead”), with which he made his professional debut as a writer in a literary magazine. It is also his oldest work that is known to exist.
The other novella is titled “Tabi e no Kokoromi” (An attempt at a journey), which is 42 genkoyoshi pages long.
In November 2025, a grandchild of a woman who ran a boarding house where Oe lived as a student contacted The Kenzaburo Oe Library at the university to let the school know of the existence of the manuscripts. They were deposited at the library after undergoing various examinations, including handwriting analyses.