Ōe Kenzaburō, (born January 31, 1935, Ehime prefecture, Shikoku, Japan—died March 3, 2023), Japanese novelist whose works express the disillusionment and rebellion of his post-World War II generation. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1994. Ōe came from a family of wealthy landowners who lost most of their property with the occupation-imposed land reform following the war. He entered the University of Tokyo in 1954 and graduated in 1959. The brilliance of his writing while he was still a student caused him to be hailed the most promising young writer since Mishima Yukio. Ōe first attracted attention