Kenzaburo Oe, regarded as one of Japan＊s leading contemporary novelists and the second Japanese person to win the Nobel Prize in literature, died on March 3, his publisher, Kodansha, announced in a statement Monday. He was 88.

A private funeral was held for his family, and a separate farewell ceremony is planned for later on.

He won the Nobel Prize in 1994 as he was working on the ※A Flaming Green Tree§ trilogy. The prize was awarded for works including the novel ※A Personal Matter§ 〞 which was dedicated to his son, the composer Hikari Oe 〞 solidifying his place in contemporary literature.

The Nobel Prize committee cited him as one ※who with poetic force creates an imagined world, where life and myth condense to form a disconcerting picture of the human predicament today.§

Born in 1935 in an Ehime Prefecture village deep in the forest, Oe was part of a traditional clan, none of whom had ventured outside of the village.

Influenced by his family＊s long history of female storytellers and his experience of World War II, he frequently invoked the horrific accounts of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He was 6 years old when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, and 10 when Japan was defeated.

Oe began his career in 1957 as a French literature student at the University of Tokyo, with his short story ※Lavish are the Dead,§ which depicts student life in the capital under the shadow of the American Occupation, published in the Bungakukai literary magazine.

He won the Akutagawa Prize for his short story ※The Catch§ in 1958, launching his career.

His other famous works include ※Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids,§ ※The Silent Cry§ and ※Hiroshima Notes,§ among many others.

A longtime pacifist, Oe was a strong critic of the Self-Defense Forces and former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe＊s plans to revise Article 9 of the Constitution. He was also involved in campaigns against nuclear weapons and nuclear power.

※I fervently hope that my pursuit, as a Japanese, of literature and culture will, in some small measure, repay Western Europe for the light it has shed upon the human condition. Perhaps my winning the prize has availed me of one such opportunity,§ he said during a speech after winning the award.