Kenzaburō Ōe, one of Japan’s leading contemporary novelists and the second Japanese writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, passed away at the age of 88 on March 3, his publisher Kodansha said Monday. Photo: VCG

Ōe attends the International Forum of the Novel in Lyon, France in May 2015. Born in 1935 in Shikoku, he began to publish stories while studying at Tokyo University in 1957. Photo: VCG

Ōe joins a rally in Tokyo in June 2014. The novelist was actively involved with pacifist and anti-nuclear campaigns. Photo: NurPhoto/VCG

Ōe attends a 2014 anti-nuclear demonstration in Tokyo to rally against the government’s plan to restart nuclear reactors, more than three years after the Fukushima disaster. Photo: VCG

Ōe speaks at a book fair in Paris, France, in March 2012. Photo: VCG

Ōe sits next to fellow Nobel Laureate Mo Yan in a literature award ceremony in Beijing in January 2009. Mo won the 2012 Nobel Prize in Literature. Ōe visited China six times since 1960. Photo: VCG

Ōe visits Mo Yan’s hometown in Gaomi, East China’s Shandong province, in May 2005. Photo: aMAo/Wikimedia Commons

Ōe enjoys the view from a hotel in Beijing in September 2006. Photo: VCG

Ōe writes inscriptions for students and faculty members from the Affiliated High School of Peking University in Beijing in September 2006. Photo: VCG

Ōe makes dumplings with faculty members from the Affiliated High School of Peking University. Photo: VCG

Ōe signs his books for readers at the Japan Society in 1995, the year after he won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Photo: © William Irwin/Courtesy of Japan Society

Ōe smiles as he answers questions from the press near his home in Seijo, Tokyo on Oct. 14, 1994, the day after he won the Nobel Prize. Photo: VCG