Toyoko Yamasaki Explained

Toyoko Yamasaki
Birth Name:Toyoko Sugimoto
Birth Date:3 November 1924
Birth Place:Osaka, Japan
Death Place:Osaka, Japan
Occupation:journalist, novelist
Language:Japanese
Education:Japanese literature
Alma Mater:Kyoto Women's University
Period:1957-2013
Genre:novel
Subject:Osaka merchants, social issues
Notableworks:Hana Noren, Shiroi Kyotō, Shizumanu Taiyō
Awards:Naoki Prize (1958)
Osaka Prefecture's Art Prize (1959)
Fujin Koron Readers' Prize (1962 and 1968)
Kikuchi Kan Prize (1991)
Bungei Shunju Readers' Prize (1991)
Mainichi Culture Prize (2009)

was a Japanese novelist.

A native of Osaka, Yamasaki worked as a journalist for the Mainichi Shimbun from 1945 to 1959 after graduating from Kyoto Women's University in Japanese literature. She published her first story, Noren (1957), a story of a kelp trader, based on the experiences of her family's business. The following year, she won the Naoki Prize for her second novel Hana Noren, the story about the founder of an entertainment group. A major influence on her writings of that period was Yasushi Inoue, who was deputy head of the Mainichi Shimbun's cultural news desk.[1]

Yamasaki wrote some stories based on actual events. For example, Futatsu no Sokoku is derived from the biography of a Japanese American David Akira Itami,[2] and Shizumanu Taiyō is based on the Japan Airlines Flight 123 accident.[3] Several works of hers were featured in films and television dramas.

Main works

DateTitleLive-action adaptationsNotes
1957
19581959 Film: starring Chikage Awashima
1960 TV: starring Mineko Yorozuya
1962 TV: starring Mitsuko Mori
1966 TV: starring Yōko Minamida
1995 TV: starring Nobuko Miyamoto
Awarded the 39th Naoki Prize.
19591960 Film: starring Ichikawa Raizō VIII
1962 TV: starring Nakamura Senjaku II
1972 TV: starring Masahiko Tsugawa
19611961 Film: starring Machiko Kyō
1962 TV: starring Yumeji Tsukioka
1976 TV: starring Yoshiko Mita
2017 TV: starring Nanako Matsushima
19631963 Film: starring Ayako Wakao
1963 TV: starring Nobuko Otowa
1970 TV: starring Yuki Kawamura
1975 TV: starring Mariko Okada
1984 TV: starring Yoshiko Mita
1991 TV: starring Miwa Takada
1994 TV: starring Yūko Natori
2005 TV: starring Ryōko Yonekura
2021 TV: starring Rie Miyazawa and Shinobu Terajima
19651966 Film: starring Jirō Tamiya
1967 TV: starring Kei Satō
1978 TV: starring Jirō Tamiya
1990 TV: starring Hiroaki Murakami
2003 TV: starring Toshiaki Karasawa
2007 TV: starring Kim Myung-min (Korean version)
2019 TV: starring Junichi Okada
19731974 TV: starring Sō Yamamura and Yūzō Kayama
1974 Film: starring Shin Saburi and Tatsuya Nakadai
2007 TV: starring Takuya Kimura and Kinya Kitaōji
2021 TV: starring Kiichi Nakai and Osamu Mukai
19761976 Film: starring Tatsuya Nakadai
1979 TV: starring Mikijirō Hira
2009 TV: starring Toshiaki Karasawa
19831984 TV

starring Matsumoto Kōshirō IX and Toshiyuki Nishida
2019 TV: starring Shun Oguri

19911995 TV: starring Tatsuya Nakadai and Takaya Kamikawa
19992009 Film: starring Ken Watanabe
2016 TV: starring Takaya Kamikawa
20092012 TV: starring Masahiro Motoki

References

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Yamasaki, noted writer on social issues, dies at 88. the-japan-news.com. October 1, 2013.
  2. Web site: Daito Bunka University and Interpretation. Daito Bunka University. 25 July 2009.
  3. Web site: Shizumanu taiyô. IMDB. 25 July 2009.