Portrait of the writer Oda Takeo (1900-1979) standing in the snows. Oda was born in Takada City (Niigata Prefecture). After studying Chinese at the Foreign Languages University in Tokyo he worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was sent to Hangzhou. However he quit his job in favour of a career in writing and won the Akutagawa prize for his first book ‘Outside the City’ (Jogai) in 1936.
