Kikuko Tsumura Explained

Kikuko Tsumura
Native Name:	津村記久子
Native Name Lang:	Japanese
Birth Place:	Osaka, Japan
Occupation:	Writer
Language:	Japanese
Genre:	Fiction, short story
Subjects:	-->
Notableworks:	Potosu raimu no fune Myūjikku buresu yū!! Wākāzu daijesuto
Spouses:	-->
Partners:	-->
Awards:	Akutagawa Prize Noma Literary Prize Dazai Osamu Prize Kawabata Yasunari Prize Oda Sakunosuke Prize

is a Japanese writer from Osaka. She has won numerous Japanese literary awards, including the Akutagawa Prize, the Noma Literary New Face Prize, the Dazai Osamu Prize, the Kawabata Yasunari Prize, and the Oda Sakunosuke Prize.

Early life and education

Tsumura was born in Osaka, Japan in 1978. While commuting to school she read science fiction novels, especially the work of William Gibson, Philip K. Dick, and Kurt Vonnegut, and began writing her own novel, Man'ītā (Maneater), while still a third-year university student.^[1] Man'ītā won the 21st Dazai Osamu Prize and was later published in book form under the title Kimi wa eien ni soitsura yori wakai.^[2] ^[3]

Career

In her first job out of college, Tsumura experienced workplace harassment and quit after ten months to retrain and find another position, an experience that inspired her to write stories about young workers.^[4] In 2008 Tsumura won the Noma Literary New Face Prize for her book Myūjikku buresu yū!! (Music Bless You!!), and in 2009 her novel Potosu raimu no fune (The Lime Pothos Boat), about a young woman experiencing precarious work, won the 140th Akutagawa Prize.^[5] Japanese literature scholar Kendall Heitzman described The Lime Pothos Boat as a "triumph" that "carefully depicts with great nuance a small cast of characters with competing interests and desires."^[6] Tsumura's book Wākāzu daijesuto (Workers' Digest), published in 2011, won the 28th Oda Sakunosuke Prize, and in 2013 her short story "Kyūsuitō to kame" ("The Water Tower and the Turtle") won the 39th Kawabata Yasunari Prize. The Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology recognized Tsumura's work with a New Artist award in 2016.

Tsumura's writing often employs Kansai-ben, a distinctive Japanese dialect spoken in Osaka and surrounding cities.^[7]

Awards

2005 21st Dazai Osamu Prize^[8] for Man'ītā (Maneater)
2008 30th Noma Literary New Face Prize^[9] for Myūjikku buresu yū!! (Music Bless You!!)
2008 26th Sakuya Konohana Prize^[10]
2009 140th Akutagawa Prize (2008下)^[11] for Potosu raimu no fune (The Lime Pothos Boat)
2011 28th Oda Sakunosuke Prize^[12] for Wākāzu daijesuto (Workers' Digest)
2013 39th Kawabata Yasunari Prize^[13] for Kyūsuitō to Kame (The Water Tower and The Turtle)
2016 MEXT Award for New Artists^[14] for Kono yo ni tayasui shigoto wa nai (There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job)
2017 27th Murasaki Shikibu Literature Prize^[15] for Fuyūrei Burajiru (A Wandering Ghost in Brazil)

Works

Areguria to wa shigoto wa dekinai, Chikuma Shobo, 2008,
Myūjikku buresu yū!! (Music Bless You!!), Kadokawa Shoten, 2008,
Kasōsuki no yukue, Kodansha, 2008,
Potosu raimu no fune (The Lime Pothos Boat), Kodansha, 2009,
Kimi wa eien ni soitsura yori wakai, Chikuma Shobo, 2009,
Wākāzu daijesuto (Workers' Digest), Shueisha, 2011,
Matomo na ie no kodomo wa inai, Chikuma Shobo, 2011,
Yaritai koto wa nidone dake, Kodansha, 2012,
Tonikaku uchi ni kaerimasu, Shinchosha, 2012,
Kore kara oinori ni ikimasu, Kadokawa Shoten, 2013,
Pōsuke, Chūō Kōron Shinsha, 2013,
Evurishingu furouzu, Bungei Shunjū, 2014,
Nidone towa tōku ni arite omō mono, Kodansha, 2015,
Konoyoni tayasui shigoto wa nai [: この世にたやすい仕事はない] (There's No Such Thing As An Easy Job), Nikkei Business Publications Inc., 2015,, translated into English by Polly Barton, Bloomsbury Publishing, Inc. 2020-21. This is the first of Tsumura's books to be translated into English.^[16] ^[17]
Kuyokuyo manejimento, Seiryūshuppan, 2016,
Makuramoto no hondana, Jitsugyōnonihonsha, 2016,
Fuyūrei Burajiru (A Wandering Ghost in Brazil), Bungei Shunjū, 2016,
Uesuto uingu (West Wing), Asahi Shimbun Shuppan, 2017,
Manuke na koyomi, Heibonsha, 2017,
Disu izu za dei (This is the Day), Asahi Shimbun Shuppan, 2018,

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Notes

Notes and References

Web site: 作家の読書道第155回：津村記久子さん. japanese. WEB本の雑誌. 17 December 2014. 1 July 2018.
News: Tsumura, Tendo, Yamamoto win literature awards for fiction. Japan Times. 16 January 2009. 1 July 2018.
Book: 君は永遠にそいつらより若い / Kimi wa eien ni soitsura yori wakai. WorldCat. OCLC. 326505742 . 1 July 2018.
Web site: https://web.archive.org/web/20110308200029/http://www.nikkeibp.co.jp/article/column/20100305/214269/. 8 March 2011. 「笑えるぐらいひどい」と言われたパワハラ体験辛くても、働くことが生きることだから書き続ける. 22 April 2010. japanese. 寺西. 芝. 森脇. 早絵. 1 July 2018.
Book: Iwata-Weickgenannt, Kristina. Visions of Precarity in Japanese Popular Culture and Literature. Routledge. 27 November 2014. Iwata-Weickgenannt. Kristina. Rosenbaum. Roman. Kirino Natsuo's Metabola, or the Okinawan stage, fractured selves and the precarity of contemporary existence. 24–42. 9781317619109.
Book: Heitzman, Kendall. Routledge Handbook of Modern Japanese Literature. Routledge. 3 June 2016. Hutchinson. Rachael. Morton. Leith Douglas. 20: The rise of women writers, the Heisei I-novel, and the contemporary bundan. 285–298. 9781317647713.
Web site: Authors: Kikuko Tsumura. Books from Japan. 1 July 2018.
Web site: 太宰治賞受賞者一覧. japanese. Chikuma Shobō. 1 July 2018.
Web site: 野間文芸新人賞過去受賞作. japanese. Kodansha. 1 July 2018. 13 May 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190513102754/https://www.kodansha.co.jp/award/noma_n/51260.html. dead.
Web site: これまでの受賞者咲くやこの花賞. www.sakuya-konohana.com. 2019-08-29.
Web site: 芥川賞受賞者一覧. japanese. 日本文学振興会. 1 July 2018.
Web site: これまでの織田作之助賞受賞作一覧 1984～2013 年. japanese. 大阪文学振興会 (Osaka Literature Promotion Institute). 1 July 2018.
Web site: https://web.archive.org/web/20130527105542/http://www.shinchosha.co.jp/prizes/kawabatasho/. 27 May 2013. 第39回川端康成文学賞受賞作品発表. japanese. Shinchosha. 1 July 2018. live.
Web site: 芸術選奨歴代受賞者一覧（昭和25年度～）. japanese. Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan. 1 July 2018.
Web site: 紫式部文学賞 - 受賞作品宇治市公式ホームページ ~宇治茶と源氏物語のまち~. www.city.uji.kyoto.jp. ja. 2019-08-29. 29 August 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190829073113/http://www.city.uji.kyoto.jp/0000018232.html. dead.
Web site: There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job. Kirkus. January 6, 2022.
Briefly reviewed in the May 31, 2021 issue of The New Yorker, p.63.