Photo/Illutration The original copy of “The Game of Contemporaneity,” released in 1979 (Provided by the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology and Faculty of Letters)

Nobel Prize-winning writer Kenzaburo Oe has deposited more than 10,000 pages of handwritten manuscripts and other materials to the University of Tokyo for a planned research institute at his alma mater.

It is one of the largest handwritten draft collections for one novelist, according to the University of Tokyo’s announcement.

The school plans to keep and manage the materials at the tentatively named Oe Kenzaburo Bunko research center within its Faculty of Letters. Academics both in and outside Japan will be able to use the articles as reference materials.

“Oe receives stimuli from foreign literature and reflects them in his stories,” said Kenichi Abe, an associate professor of literature at the university. “Experts of Japanese literature and overseas literature will be able to work together, offering a good opportunity to redefine Oe’s works as part of world literature.”

The school said it received 50 documents connected to Oe, 86, such as manuscripts and galley proofs, marking the first time so many Oe-related items have been entrusted to a public organization. It is also the first time the university has accepted a novelist’s collection comprising mainly of handwritten manuscripts.

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The handwritten manuscript of “Lavish are the Dead” from 1957 (Provided by the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology and Faculty of Letters)

Oe debuted as a writer in 1957 with “Kimyo na Shigoto” (The Strange Work) while he was still a student at the university. After winning the prestigious Akutagawa Prize for “Shiiku” (The Catch) in 1958, he graduated from the school in 1959.

Among the deposited copies are those of “Shisha no Ogori” (Lavish are the Dead), an early short piece penned in 1957 as a student, “Dojidai Gemu” (The Game of Contemporaneity), his representative intermediate-period story released in 1979, and “Bannen Yoshikishu” (In Late Style) from 2013.

The materials had formerly been kept at Oe’s home and at publishers Kodansha Ltd. and Bungeishunju Ltd.

After Kodansha published Oe’s complete works, the author and other parties concerned agreed on entrusting the documents to the University of Tokyo.

The university said its labs for Japanese and French literature will primarily be responsible for operating the planned research center. Abe is among those in charge of it.

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