Yoshiko Shigekane (1927-93) was the 12th female winner of the Akutagawa prize in 1979 and was the 10th winner among post-war female winners. This paper looks mainly at journal articles and essays about her achievement and her own recollections of how she became a novelist. Using relevant information from those sources, the author clarifies the factors which allowed this woman to become a celebrated author and her educational environment.Shigekane was disparagingly called the "housewife author." She was particularly criticized for her amateurism because she won the prize after preparing in ways that were unusual. She attended a course called "Novel Writing Method" at a Culture Center (a Japanese private further education school). Culture Centers were one of the most accessible choices women of Shigekane's time had for further education. It was difficult for women to enroll in courses at universities or other officially recognized institutions.Looking at the criticism Shigekane received for her non-traditional education, the author concludes that people, even in those post-war days, undervalued the seriousness of the pursuits some women undertook in their leisure time.