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Akira Yoshimura

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Akira Yoshimura
Native name
吉村よしむら 昭あきら
Born(1927-05-01)May 1, 1927
DiedJuly 31, 2006(2006-07-31) (aged 79)
OccupationWriter
NationalityJapanese
Notable worksOn Parole and Shipwrecks
Notable awardsYomiuri Prize
SpouseTsumura Setsuko

Akira Yoshimura (吉村よしむら 昭あきら, Yoshimura Akira, May 1, 1927 – July 31, 2006) was an award-winning Japanese writer. Internationally he is best known for his novels Shipwrecks and On Parole.

Life and work

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Yoshimura was the president of the Japanese writers' union and a PEN member. He published over 20 novels, of which On Parole and Shipwrecks are internationally known and have been translated into several languages. In 1984 he received the Yomiuri Prize for his novel Hagoku (破獄はごく, On Parole) based on the true story of Yoshie Shiratori.[1][2]

After the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, Yoshimura's nonfiction chronicle of three previous tsunamis on the coast of Sanriku, Sanriku Kaigan Otsunami received an influx of orders, requiring a reprint of 150,000 copies. Yoshimura's wife and author in her own right, Setsuko Tsumura donated the royalties from the book to the village of Tanohata, which was heavily impacted by the tsunami. Tanohata was a favorite place of Yoshimura's to visit and inspired him to begin research on the historical tsunamis of the area.[3]

Yoshimura was married to the writer Setsuko Tsumura.

Books (selection)

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  • 1966 Senkan Musashi (戦艦せんかん武蔵むさし)
  • English edition: Battleship Musashi: The Making and Sinking of the Worlds Biggest Battleship (Kodansha USA, 1999)
  • 1967 Mizu no sōretsu (水みずの葬列そうれつ)
  • 1970 Umi no kabe sanriku kaigan ōtsunami (海うみの壁かべ 三陸さんりく沿岸えんがん大だい津波つなみ)
  • 1978 Tōi hi no sensō (遠とおい日ひの戦争せんそう)
  • English edition: One Man’s Justice (Canongate, 2004), ISBN 978-1-84195-479-0
  • 1979 Pōtsumasu no hata (ポーツマスの旗はた) (on the 1905 Japan-Russia Treaty of Portsmouth negotiation)
  • French edition: Les Drapeaux de Portsmouth (Éditions Philippe Picquier, 1990)
  • 1982 Hasen (破船はせん)
  • English edition: Shipwrecks (破船はせん, Hasen) (Harvest Books, 1996), ISBN 0-15-600835-1
  • 1983 Hagoku (破獄はごく)
  • 1988 Karishakuhō (仮釈放かりしゃくほう)
  • 1989 Yami ni hirameku (闇やみにひらめく)
  • 1998 Namamugi jiken (生麦なまむぎ事件じけん)
  • 1999 Amerika Hikozō (アメリカ彦蔵) (on Joseph Heco)
  • English edition: Storm Rider (Harcourt, 2004)

Awards and honors

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References

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  1. ^ Richard Bernstein: In Old Japan, Human Horror and Nature's Revenge, The New York Times, 24 July 1996.
  2. ^ Emily Gordon: on parole, Salon.com, 9 March 2000 (archived).
  3. ^ Karan, Pradyumna P.; Suganuma, Unryu (August 30, 2016). Japan after 3/11: Global Perspectives on the Earthquake, Tsunami, and Fukushima Meltdown. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 9780813167329.
  4. ^ "宰おさむ治ち賞しょう受賞じゅしょう者しゃ一覧いちらん" [Dazai Osamu Prize Winners List] (in Japanese). Chikuma Shobō. Archived from the original on July 1, 2018. Retrieved September 21, 2018.
  5. ^ "読売よみうり文学ぶんがく賞しょう" [Yomiuri Prize for Literature] (in Japanese). Yomiuri Shimbun. Archived from the original on September 1, 2018. Retrieved September 21, 2018.
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