[1] When she was 15, the Pacific War broke out and her teenage years were dominated by service as a student worker sewing military uniforms and working in a munitions factory.

[2][4] Kōno's short story "Hone no niku" (Bone Meat) was published in the 1977 anthology Contemporary Japanese Literature (ed.

Kōno's writing explores how "underneath the seemingly normal routines of daily life, one may find hidden propensities for abnormal or pathological behavior," demonstrating that often "reality and fantasy are not so clearly distinguishable from each other.

[5] More specifically, her writings explore "the struggles of Japanese women to come to terms with their identity in a traditional patriarchal society.

"[2] Most of her female characters "reject traditional notions" of femininity and gender roles, their frustration "leads them to violent, often antisocial or sadomasochistic ways of dealing with the world.

One critic has written that the story "turn[s] the myth of motherhood on its head" while another argued that Hayashi was a representation of demonic women who threatened patriarchy itself.

[2] In Fui no koe (1968), which one critic has called a "modern woman's Hamlet," Kōno presents the story of Ukiko, whose dead father haunts her.

At the end of the story, it is revealed that all of these incidents are only taking place within her mind and she is "trying in her twisted way to bring meaning to her everyday relationships.