Ineko Sata
Born	(1904-06-01)1 June 1904 Nagasaki, Japan
Died	12 October 1998(1998-10-12) (aged 94) Tokyo, Japan
Occupation	Writer
Literary movement	Proletarian literary movement, Postwar Democratic Movement
Notable works	Crimson (Kurenai), In the Shade of Trees (Juei), Summer Bookmark (Natsu no shiori), Standing in Time (Toki ni tatsu)

Ineko Sata (佐多 稲子, Sata Ineko; 1 June 1904 – 12 October 1998) was a well respected Japanese author, closely connected to the Proletarian Literature Movement, the Japan Communist Party, and the Women's Democratic Club.

Born in Nagasaki to young, unmarried parents (her father was 18, her mother 15), the family moved to Tokyo while she was still a child. Her first job was in a caramel factory, but she later went on to work in restaurants where she befriended several writers, including Ryūnosuke Akutagawa.^[1] In 1922 her poems were published for the first time in Shi to jinsei ("Poetry and life").

Working at the Koroku café-bar in Hongo, near Tokyo University, she met Shigeharu Nakano who would remain a lifelong friend. Along with Nakano, left-wing writers Tatsuo Hori and Tsurujirō Kubokawa ran the progressive literary magazine Roba ("Donkey"). Nakano inspired Sata to write her first short story, Kyarameru koba kara ("From the Caramel Factory") in 1928. Having already divorced her first husband, she then married Kubokawa.^[1]

While praised by writers including Yasunari Kawabata for drawing on modernist literary techniques, Sata became increasing involved in issues related to workers and the labor movement. In 1929, she spoke out against the treatment of women workers in cigarette factories. In 1931, she defended the striking workers of the Tokyo Muslin Factory. As a member of the Proletarian Literature Movement, she wrote a series of short stories about the lives of ordinary working men and women. These included Kyoseikikoku ("Compulsory Extradition"), about the rights of migrant Korean workers and Kambu joko no namida ("Tears of a Forewoman").^[1]

In 1932 she joined the outlawed Japan Communist Party (JCP).^[1] She became close to JCP leaders Kenji Miyamoto and Takiji Kobayashi, the former imprisoned until 1945^[2] and the latter tortured to death by police in 1933. In 1935 she was arrested for anti-war activism and spent two months in jail. This experience is described in part in her 1936 novel Kurenai (Crimson).^[1] Sata's strong opinions were also often at odds with the official Communist Party platform.^[1]

During the heights of the Pacific War, Sata eventually collaborated with the authorities by writing literature in support of the Japanese war effort, for which she later faced criticism by former associates.^[3]

In 1945, with the end of the Pacific War, she divorced her husband Kubokawa.^[1] In 1946 she rejoined the JCP (Japanese Communist Party), although, as before, she often voiced vehement criticism of the party. Her wartime experiences were the subject of Watashi no Tōkyō chizu ("My Tokyo Map"), which was written between 1946 and 1948. In 1954 she wrote Kikai no naka no seishun ("Youth among the Machines"). Her collected works were issued in 15 volumes in 1958–59. She would write Onna no yado ("Women's Lodgings") in 1963 and Omoki nagarani ("On a Heavy Tide") in 1968–69.^[1]

By 1964 Sata had rejoined the JCP after yet another expulsion. She was one of the founders of the new Women's Democratic Club. Her activities in the organization, judged divisive from the perspective of the party mainstream,^[4] led to another expulsion from the JCP.^[1]

Sata was awarded the Noma Prize in 1972 for her book Juei ("The Shade of Trees"), which deals with the relationships between Chinese and Japanese people in Nagasaki after the dropping of the atomic bomb. In 1973, she was offered the Geijutuin Onshisho (Imperial Art Academy Prize) for her life's work, but she refused the award as she regarded it as a nationalist congratulation prize. She accepted the Kawabata Prize for short stories in 1977.^[1]

In 1983, Sata received the Asahi Prize for the entire body of her work. She gave an acceptance speech which expressed regret for her contributions to the war effort. Her book about Nakano, who had died in 1979, Natsu no Shiori – Nakano Shigeharu o okuru (Memories of Summer – a Farewell to Shigeharu Nakano) was awarded the Mainichi Art Award in 1983.^[1]

Most of Sata's work was translated into Russian in the 1960s and 1970s. English translations include:

• Sata, Ineko (1987). "Camellia Blossoms on the Little Mountain (Chiisana yama to tsubaki no hana)". Japanese Literature Today. Translated by Jewel, Mark. P.E.N. Club.
• Sata, Ineko (1985). "The Colorless Paintings (Iro no nai e)". In Ōe, Kenzaburō (ed.). The Crazy Iris and Other Stories of the Atomic Aftermath. New York: Grove Press.
• Sata, Ineko (1997). "Water (Mizu)". Stories from the East. The East Publications.
• Sata, Ineko (2002). "Elegy (excerpt from My Tokyo Map / Watashi no Tōkyō chizu)". Tokyo Stories: A Literary Stroll. Translated by Rogers, Lawrence. University of California Press.
• Sata, Ineko (2016). Five Faces of Japanese Feminism: Crimson and Other Works. Translated by Perry, Samuel. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press.

• Shibata Schierbeck, Sachiko, ed. (1994). "Writers of Social Protests, 1916–1930: Sata Ineko". Japanese Women Novelists in the 20th Century: 104 Biographies, 1900-1993. Museum Tusculanum Press. pp. 55–60.
• Telling Lives: Women's Self-writing in Modern Japan, By Ronald P. Loftus, Translated by Ronald P. Loftus, University of Hawaii Press, 2004, ISBN 0-8248-2834-8
• Kusakabe, Madoka. "Sata Ineko and Hirabayashi Taiko: The Café and Jokyû as a Stage for Social Criticism" (PhD thesis) (). September 2011. Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon.