直木三十五記念館

I have known its existence of Naoki Sanjyugo Museum. However I thought it was situated in an independent building. So I was very surprised that this museum was located in the second floor of Hou building. I paid 200 yen for admission fee and entered the room. The museum is very small. The novelist Naoki Sanjyugo’s works such as original drafts, essays during middle school period or pictures are displayed in show cases. He was born in Uchiandoujimachi, Osaka and entered Waseda University. After he failed in some businesses, he began to write novels. He was highly appreciated and established his position as a popular novelist. He passed away at the age of 43 because of tuberculous meningitis. The following year of his death, his close novelist friend, Kikuchi Kan founded the novel prize, the Naoki prize. Very famous prize in Japan. It has still continued. His history was told by a recorder in the museum.
Anyway his name «Sanjyugo» is not a real name. At 31 years old he called himself «Sanjyuichi (31)», the following year «Sanjyuni (32)» …he changed his name according to his age. Very unique!
There is also tatami mat floor on which a fire brazier, table, bookshelf and so on are placed. The bookshelf houses novels which were awarded for the Naoki Prize.
I thought about Naoki Sanjyugo. He continued writing various splendid novels without being discouraged at all even if he could not pay school expenses, and had to drop out the university, and even if he smashed companies. He would leave more splendid works for the world if he lived for a long time.
The Naoki Prize is very too high for me not to be able to reach. But I think that I should be able to continue writing a novel with this prize as encouragement.