Microsoft Word KoboAbe-WomanInTheDunes doc

Niki Jumpei
DATE OF BIRTH: 
March
7, 
In view of the fact that a notice of missing person (s) has been filed by 
Niki Shino (mother), notification of the existence of the missing party 
should be made to this court by September 
21
, 1962. In the event of no 
further report, the said person will be pronounced missing. Anyone 
knowing anything about the person in question is requested to report to 
this court by the above date. 
February 18,19/62
COURT OF DOMESTIC RELATIONS 
JUDGMENT 
CLAIMANT: 
Niki Shino
MISSING PERSON: Nifet 
Jumpei
DATE OF 
BIRTH: 
March
7, 
A declaration of disappearance concerning the above-mentioned party 
having been filed, the procedure of public notice having been fulfilled, 
and the unascertainability of either the existence or the death of the 
person in question from August 18, 1955, for seven years hence, having 
been recognized, the following decision has been handed down. 
DECISION 
Niki Jumpei is hereby declared missing. 
October
5,1962.
COURT OF DOMESTIC RELATIONS.
SIGNATURE OF JUDGE 

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A Note 
About the Author
Kobo Abe was born in Tokyo in 1924 but grew up in Mukden, 
Manchuria, where his father, a doctor, was on the staff of the medical 
school. As a young man Mr. Abe was interested in mathematics and 
insect collecting as well as the works of Poe, Dostoevski, Nietzsche, 
Heidegger, Jaspers, and Kafka. He received a medical degree from 
Tokyo University in 1948, but he has never practiced medicine. In that 
same year he published his first book, 
The Road Sign at the End of the 
Street
. In 1951 he was awarded the most important Japanese literary 
prize, the Akutagawa, for his novel 
The Crime of Mr. S. Karuma
. In 1960 
his novel 
The Woman in the Dunes
won the Yomiuri Prize for Literature. 
It was made into a film by Hiroshi Teshigahara in 1963 and won the 
jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival. It was the first of Mr. Abe's 
novels to be published in translation in the United States, in 1964. 
The 
Face of Another
(1966) was also made into a film by Mr. Teshigahara. 
Other novels in translation include 
The Ruined Map
(1969), 
Friends 
(
1969), 
The Box Man
(1974), and 
The Man Who Turned Into a Stick
(1976). 
This edition is illustrated by drawings from the pen of Marchi Abe, the 
author's wife. The Abes live on the outskirts of Tokyo. 
A Note 
About
the Translator
E. Dale Saunders, translator of Kobo Abe's 
The Woman in the Dunes
(1964), 
The Face of Another
(1966), and 
The Ruined Map
(1969), 
received his A.B. from Western Reserve University (1941), his M.A. 
from Harvard (1948), and his Ph.D. from the University of Paris (1952). 
He is Professor of Japanese Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, 
having previously taught at International Christian University, Tokyo, 
and at Harvard University. Among his publications are 
Mudra: A Study 
of Symbolic Gestures in Japanese Buddhist Sculpture
(1960) and 
Buddhism in Japan
(1964).