Junichi Watanabe Explained

Junichi Watanabe
Birth Name:	渡辺淳一
Birth Date:	24 October 1933
Birth Place:	Kamisunagawa, Hokkaido, Japan
Death Place:	Tokyo, Japan
Death Date:	^[1]
Alma Mater:	Sapporo Medical University
Occupation:	Medical doctor, writer
Notable Works:	A Lost Paradise
Spouse:	Toshiko Horiuchi^[2]

was a Japanese writer.

Biography

Jun'ichi Watanabe was born in Kamisunagawa, Hokkaido, Japan. His starting point as a literate was the death of a classmate who was his first love in high school.^[3] He published his first works while still studying at Sapporo Medical University, where he graduated in 1958. He specialised in orthopedic surgery, while at the same time writing medical, historical, and biographical novels. Following the scandal about the first heart transplant operation performed in Japan in 1968, which became known as the "Wada incident", Watanabe left his medical profession and concentrated on writing.

Watanabe wrote more than 50 novels in total, and won awards including the 1970 Naoki Prize for Hikari to kage (lit. "Light and shadow"), and the Yoshikawa Eiji Prize in 1979 for Toki rakujitsu ("The Setting Sun in the Distance) and Nagasaki roshia yujokan ("The Russian brothel of Nagasaki").^{[4] [5]} He gained wide attention with a series of sexually explicit novels, including the 1997 bestseller A Lost Paradise, which was made into a film and a TV miniseries.

He died on 30 April 2014 of prostate cancer in Tokyo.^[6]

Works in English translation

• 1969: Invitation to Suicide (Jisatsu no susume). In: Autumn Wind and Other Stories
• 1970: Beyond the Blossoming Fields (Hanauzumi)
• 1997: A Lost Paradise (Shitsurakuen)
• 2009: Beyond the Blossoming Fields(Deborah Iwabuchi, Anna Isozaki)

Works in French translation

• 2021:Château Rouge(Kenzo Suzuki, Dominique Sylvain)

Works in Spanish translation

• 2009:Ginko.la Primera Doctora(Seix Barral)

Awards

• 1965 (Showa 40) - 12th Shincho Literary Award - "Death Makeup"
• 1970 (Showa 45) - 63rd Naoki Prize - "Light and Shadow"
• 1979 (Showa 54) - 14th Yoshikawa Eiji Literature Award - "Distant Setting Sun" and "Nagasaki Russian Courtesan Hall"
• 1983 (Showa 58) - 48th Bungeishunju Reader's Award - "Voice of Silence: The Life of Mrs. Nogi Nokibe"
• 2003 Order of the Sacred Treasure, Purple Ribbon
• 2001 Knight's Cross of the Order of the Falcon (Iceland, October 16, 2001): Presented at the opening of the Embassy of Iceland in Japan.

External links

• Junichi Watanabe's literature house
• Web site: https://web.archive.org/web/20090512080100/http://www.watanabe-junichi.net/ . 渡辺淳一の世界II (Junichi Watanabe official blog) . ja . 12 May 2009 . 17 October 2022.

Notes and References

1. Web site: 渡辺淳一 . Kotobank . ja . 17 October 2022.
2. Web site: 渡辺淳一さん死去 「失楽園」「鈍感力」流行語生み出す . . ja . 6 May 2014 . 17 October 2022.
3. Web site: 渡辺淳一 . . ja . 17 October 2022.
4. Book: West, Mark D. . Secrets, sex, and spectacle: the rules of scandal in Japan and the United States . University of Chicago Press . 2006 . 272 . 0-226-89408-8 . 26 May 2009.
5. Web site: Jun'ichi Watanabe . Japanese Literature Publishing Project . Japanese Literature Publishing and Promotion Center . 26 May 2009 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20080110035107/http://www.jlpp.jp/en/authors/detail.html?w_id=112 . 10 January 2008 .
6. Web site: OBITUARY: Junichi Watanabe, novelist who focused on love affairs . . 6 May 2014 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20140506165855/http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/people/AJ201405060039 . 6 May 2014.