| Megumu Sagisawa | |
| Native Name: | 鷺沢萠 |
| Birth Name: | Megumi Matsuo (Japanese: 松尾めぐみ, Matsuo Megumi) |
| Birth Date: | 20 June 1968 |
| Birth Place: | Setagaya City, Tokyo, Japan |
| Death Place: | Meguro, Tokyo, Japan |
| Notable Works: |
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| Awards: |
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was the pen name of Japanese novelist and writer . Her works of fiction have been described as focusing on topics such as complex interpersonal relationships and the anxieties of the youth.
Sagisawa published her debut novel in 1987, for which she became the youngest person to win the Bungakukai Prize for New Authors. She later won the 1992 Izumi Kyōka Prize for Literature for and became a five-time nominee for the Akutagawa Prize.
Megumu Sagisawa was born in Tokyo, Japan on 20 June 1968, as the youngest of four sisters.[1] [2] Her parents divorced when she was fifteen years old.[3] Sagisawa was of Korean descent. Her grandmother, born in Taechon, Korea, was a first-generation Korean immigrant to Japan who lived in Tokyo and married a Japanese man.[4] [5]
Sagisawa published her debut novel in 1987, while she was in university, although she wrote it in high school. The novel received favourable attention due to its subtle portrayal of the struggles of adolescent life. She received the for the novel, and became the youngest person to be awarded the prize at eighteen years old. She then began studying Russian at the Sophia University Department of Foreign Studies in the same year, but left the university before graduating.[6] [7]
In 1989, she published the novel, which became a candidate for the Akutagawa Prize, but did not win. Since then, she was selected as a candidate for the prize four more times.[8] She was awarded the 1992 Izumi Kyōka Prize for Literature for her novel .[9] While writing the novel, she learned that her grandmother was originally from Korea. She began studying Korean language abroad at Yonsei University in 1993. In 2002, she published an autobiographical novel titled .
Sagisawa was also a noted essayist and translator of children's picture books. She worked with screenwriter and director at the, a theatre company that produces comedies, until her death.[10] [11] Her book was first published in late March 2004, and was set to be staged under her own production in June.[8]
Sagisawa's works of fiction have been described as focusing on topics such as complex interpersonal relationships and the "anxieties of young people." She released more than twenty novels and short story collections through her career, which have been translated into Italian, Korean, and English. Her works include:
Sagisawa married director Gō Rijū in 1990. They divorced a year later.
Sagisawa died on 11 April 2004 at her residence in Meguro, Tokyo, Japan. The cause of her death was initially reported as heart failure, but was later found by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department to have been a suicide.[13] Following her death, Korean newspapers The Chosun Ilbo, The Hankyoreh, and The Dong-a Ilbo described her as one of Japan's leading female Korean writers.[14] [15] [16]