Toyoko Yamasaki

Toyoko Yamasaki (山崎 豊子, Yamasaki Toyoko, real name Sugimoto Toyoko; 3 November 1924 – 29 September 2013) was a Japanese novelist.

Toyoko Yamasaki
BornToyoko Sugimoto
(1924-11-03)3 November 1924
Osaka, Japan
Died29 September 2013(2013-09-29) (aged 88)
Osaka
Occupationjournalist, novelist
LanguageJapanese
EducationJapanese literature
Alma materKyoto Women's University
Period1957-2013
Genrenovel
SubjectOsaka merchants, social issues
Notable worksHana Noren, Shiroi Kyotō, Shizumanu Taiyō
Notable awardsNaoki 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)

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

Date Title Live-action adaptations Notes
1957 Noren (暖簾)
1958 Hana Noren (花のれん) 1959 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.
1959 Bonchi (ぼんち, translated by Harue and Travis Summersgill as Bonchi) 1960 Film: starring Ichikawa Raizō VIII
1962 TV: starring Nakamura Senjaku II
1972 TV: starring Masahiko Tsugawa
1961 Onna no Kunsho (女の勲章) 1961 Film: starring Machiko Kyō
1962 TV: starring Yumeji Tsukioka
1976 TV: starring Yoshiko Mita
2017 TV: starring Nanako Matsushima
1963 Nyokei Kazoku (女系家族) 1963 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
1965 Shiroi Kyotō (白い巨塔) 1966 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
1973 Karei-naru Ichizoku (華麗なる一族) 1974 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
1976 Fumō Chitai (不毛地帯, translated by James T. Araki as The Barren Zone) 1976 Film: starring Tatsuya Nakadai
1979 TV: starring Mikijirō Hira
2009 TV: starring Toshiaki Karasawa
1983 Futatsu no Sokoku (二つの祖国, translated by V. Dixon Morris as Two Homelands) 1984 TV: starring Matsumoto Kōshirō IX and Toshiyuki Nishida
2019 TV: starring Shun Oguri
1991 Daichi no Ko (大地の子) 1995 TV: starring Tatsuya Nakadai and Takaya Kamikawa
1999 Shizumanu Taiyō (沈まぬ太陽) 2009 Film: starring Ken Watanabe
2016 TV: starring Takaya Kamikawa
2009 Unmei no hito (運命の人) 2012 TV: starring Masahiro Motoki

References

  • Schierbeck, Sachiko; Edelstein, Marlene (1994). Japanese Women Novelists in the 20th Century. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press. pp. 153–156.
  • NHK obituary
  1. "Yamasaki, noted writer on social issues, dies at 88". the-japan-news.com. Retrieved October 1, 2013.
  2. "Daito Bunka University and Interpretation". Daito Bunka University. Retrieved 25 July 2009.
  3. "Shizumanu taiyô". IMDB. Retrieved 25 July 2009.
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