Hikari Ōe

Hikari Ōe (大江 光 Ōe Hikari, born 1963) is a Japanese composer who has autism. He is the son of Japanese author Kenzaburo Ōe.

Hikari Ōe was born developmentally disabled. Doctors tried to convince his parents to let their son die, but they refused to do so. Even after an operation, Ōe remained visually impaired, developmentally delayed, epileptic and with limited physical coordination. He does not speak much.

It has been said that Ōe was walking with his parents near his house and heard a bird calling. He imitated the call with great precision. His parents were fascinated. They bought him tracks of bird calls, which he learned. This was how they got the idea to recruit a music teacher for Ōe. His parents arranged a piano teacher, Kumiko Tamura, for him. Instead of speaking, Ōe began to express his feelings in music and through musical composition. Eventually he was taught musical notation.

Kenzaburo Ōe has credited his son for influencing his literary career because he tried to give his son a "voice" through his writing. Kenzaburo Ōe's books have been said by literary critics to always feature a character based on his son. In 1994, Kenzaburo Ōe won the Nobel Prize for Literature.