Kaoru Takamura Explained

Kaoru Takamura
Native Name:髙村 薫
Birth Place:Osaka, Japan
Occupation:Writer
Language:Japanese
Alma Mater:International Christian University
Genre:
Notableworks:
  • Ōgon o daite tobe
  • Riviera o ute
  • Māksu no yama
  • Taiyō o hiku uma
  • Tsuchi no ki
Awards:

is a Japanese writer from Osaka. She has won numerous Japanese literary awards, including the Mystery Writers of Japan Award, the Japan Adventure Fiction Association Prize, the Naoki Prize, the Yomiuri Prize, and the Noma Literary Prize, and her work has been adapted for film and television.

Early life and education

Takamura was born in Osaka in 1953. After graduating from International Christian University, she worked for a trading company, and did not start writing until her 30s.[1] [2]

Career

Takamura's first novel, , was published in 1990 and won the Japan Mystery and Suspense Grand Prize. Two years later her novel , a thriller about an Irish man mysteriously murdered in Tokyo as part of an apparent international espionage plot, was published, winning both the Mystery Writers of Japan Award and the Japan Adventure Fiction Association Prize. Ōgon o daite tobe was later adapted into the 2012 Kazuyuki Izutsu film of the same name, starring Satoshi Tsumabuki and Tadanobu Asano.[3]

In 1993 Takamura's mystery novel , about a boy who survives his parents' suicide and grows up to be a psychopathic serial killer, won the Naoki Prize as well as Takamura's second consecutive Japan Adventure Fiction Association Prize. The book sold more than a million copies.[4] It was later adapted into a 1995 Yoichi Sai film and a 2010 Wowow television drama.[5] By the mid-1990s Takamura was seen as the "Queen of Mysteries", but in 1997, after completing a fictionalized account of the Glico Morinaga case titled , she changed the focus of her writing from mystery novels to literary fiction.[6] Lady Joker was later adapted into the 2004 Hideyuki Hirayama film Lady Joker and a 2013 Wowow television drama.[7]

Takamura subsequently published a trilogy of novels about the lives of four generations of a conservative political family, starting with in 2002, continuing with in 2005, and concluding with in 2009. Shin Ria-ō won the Shinran Prize, and Taiyō o hiku uma won the Yomiuri Prize.[8] In 2016 she published the novel , about an elderly farmer coping with the death of his wife, alienation from his daughter, and disruption caused by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.[9] Tsuchi no ki won the 70th Noma Literary Prize,[10] the 44th Jirō Osagari Prize, and a Mainichi Arts Award.

Writing style

Takamura's fiction focuses especially on the psychological aspects of her characters. She also addresses larger contemporary social issues, both in her novels and in the nonfiction essays and commentary that she writes for newspapers and magazines.

Recognition

Film and other adaptations

Film

Television

Works

Notes and References

  1. Book: Japanese Women Novelists in the 20th Century: 104 Biographies, 1900-1993. Schierbeck. Sachiko. Edelstein. Marlene. 1994. Museum Tusculanum. 9788772892689. 264-266.
  2. Web site: Authors: Kaoru Takamura. Books from Japan. December 13, 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20181215123730/http://www.booksfromjapan.jp/authors/item/861-kaoru-takamura. December 15, 2018. live. mdy-all.
  3. News: 映画『黄金を抱いて翔べ』妻夫木聡＆浅野忠信　単独インタビュー. ja. Cinema Today. October 29, 2012. December 15, 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20181215121556/https://www.cinematoday.jp/interview/A0003441. December 15, 2018. live. mdy-all.
  4. News: 上川隆也主演ドラマ「マークスの山」マークス役は高良健吾に決定！恋人役に戸田菜穂. ja. Cinema Today. August 25, 2010. December 15, 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20181215123213/https://www.cinematoday.jp/news/N0026351. December 15, 2018. live. mdy-all.
  5. News: 高村薫『マークスの山』が上川隆也主演で初ドラマ化 23日間かけキャスト発表. ja. Oricon News. August 4, 2010. December 15, 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20181215123620/https://www.oricon.co.jp/news/78751/full/. December 15, 2018. live. mdy-all.
  6. Book: Seaman, Amanda C.. Bodies of Evidence: Women, Society, and Detective Fiction in 1990s Japan. University of Hawaii Press. 2004. 9780824828066. 14-16.
  7. News: 上川隆也×柴田恭兵で「レディ・ジョーカー」連続ドラマ化！. ja. Cinema Today. October 12, 2012. December 15, 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20181215123130/https://www.cinematoday.jp/news/N0046774. December 15, 2018. live. mdy-all.
  8. Web site: The Horse of the Sun: Synopsis. Books from Japan. December 15, 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20181215123554/http://www.booksfromjapan.jp/publications/item/479-the-horse-of-the-sun. December 15, 2018. live. mdy-all.
  9. Web site: Working the Earth: Synopsis. Books from Japan. December 15, 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20181215122629/http://www.booksfromjapan.jp/publications/item/4393-working-the-earth. December 15, 2018. live. mdy-all.
  10. News: 野間文芸賞　震災経て生まれた「土の記」の高村薫さんら会見. ja. Sankei Shimbun. December 4, 2017. December 13, 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180802011444/https://www.sankei.com/life/news/171204/lif1712040012-n1.html. August 2, 2018. live. mdy-all.
  11. Web site: 推理作家協会賞作品. ja. Mystery Writers of Japan: Prose Writers Award Winning Works. Mystery Writers of Japan. December 15, 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180128140133/http://www.mystery.or.jp/search/prize/page:4?prize=1. January 28, 2018. live. mdy-all.
  12. Web site: Jafa: 第9回（1990年）～ 第18回（1999年）大賞作品. ja. JAFA Grand Prize Winners: 1990-1999. Japan Adventure Fiction Association. December 13, 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20160625070727/http://aisa.ne.jp/jafa/award_'90.html. June 25, 2016. live. mdy-all.
  13. Web site: 直木賞受賞者一覧. ja. List of Naoki Prize Winners. 日本文学振興会. Bungeishunjū. December 13, 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20181107125052/http://www.bunshun.co.jp/shinkoukai/award/naoki/list.html. November 7, 2018. live. mdy-all.
  14. Web site: 親鸞賞. ja. Shinran Prize. Honganji Foundation. December 15, 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20181118205836/http://honganjifoundation.org/culture/shinran/index.html. November 18, 2018. live. mdy-all.
  15. Web site: 読売文学賞　第６１回（２００９年度）～ 第６５回（２０１３年度）. ja. Yomiuri Prize for Literature: 2009-2013. Yomiuri Shimbun. December 13, 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180622033122/https://info.yomiuri.co.jp/contest/clspgl/detail/718.html. June 22, 2018. live. mdy-all.
  16. Web site: 野間賞過去受賞作. ja. Noma Literary Prize Past Winning Works. Kodansha. December 15, 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20181215121226/https://www.kodansha.co.jp/award/noma_b/51091.html. December 15, 2018. live. mdy-all.
  17. News: 第４４回大佛次郎賞　『土の記』――高村薫氏. ja. Asahi Shimbun. December 17, 2017. December 15, 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20181215122033/https://www.asahi.com/articles/DA3S13277493.html. December 15, 2018. live. mdy-all.
  18. News: 第５９回毎日芸術賞: 贈呈式　受賞７人、喜びの声. ja. Mainichi Shimbun. January 26, 2018. December 15, 2018.
  19. Web site: マークスの山. ja. Wowow. December 15, 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20181215121710/https://www.wowow.co.jp/detail/011539. December 15, 2018. live. mdy-all.
  20. Web site: 連続ドラマW「レディ・ジョーカー」. ja. Wowow. December 15, 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20181215122220/https://www.wowow.co.jp/dramaw/ladyjoker/. December 15, 2018. live. mdy-all.

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