was a Japanese novelist, singer, lyricist, and member of the

House of Councillors The is the upper house of the National Diet of Japan. The House of Representatives is the lower house. The House of Councillors is the successor to the pre-war House of Peers. If the two houses disagree on matters of the budget, treaties, ...

. As a broadcasting writer he used the name and his alias as a

chanson A (, , french: chanson française, link=no, ; ) is generally any lyric-driven French song, though it most often refers to the secular polyphonic French songs of late medieval and Renaissance music. The genre had origins in the monophonic s ...

singer was .

Early life

Nosaka was born in

Kamakura is a city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. Kamakura has an estimated population of 172,929 (1 September 2020) and a population density of 4,359 persons per km² over the total area of . Kamakura was designated as a city on 3 November 1939. Kamak ...

Kanagawa is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the List of Japanese prefectures by population, second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-dens ...

, the son of Sukeyuki Nosaka, who was an official of the Tokyo Metropolitan Bureau of Construction. Together with his sisters he grew up as an adopted child of a Harimaya family in

Nada Nada may refer to: Culture * Nāda, a concept in ancient Indian metaphysics Places *Nada, Hainan, China *Nada, Kentucky, an unincorporated community in the United States *Nada, Nepal, village in Achham District, Seti Zone * Nada, Texas, United S ...

Kobe Kobe ( , ; officially , ) is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture Japan. With a population around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Tokyo and Yokohama. It is located in Kansai region, whic ...

, Hyōgo. His foster mother, Aiko, was his maternal aunt. Nosaka is part of the "Generation of the Ashes" (), which includes other writers like

Kenzaburō Ōe is a Japanese writer and a major figure in contemporary Japanese literature. His novels, short stories and essays, strongly influenced by French and American literature and literary theory, deal with political, social and philosophical issues, i ...

and

Makoto Oda was a Japanese novelist, peace activist, academic and ''Time'' Asian Hero. Early life and career Oda was born in Osaka in 1932 and graduated from the University of Tokyo's Faculty of Letters program, majoring in classical Greek philosophy and li ...

. One of his sisters died as the result of malnutrition, and his adoptive father died during the 1945

bombing of Kobe in World War II The bombing of Kobe in World War II on March 16 and 17, 1945, was part of the strategic bombing campaign waged by the United States against military and civilian targets and population centers during the Japan home islands campaign in the closing ...

. Another sister died of malnutrition in

Fukui is a Japanese name meaning "fortunate" or sometimes "one who is from the Fukui prefecture". It may refer to: Places * Fukui Domain, a part of the Japanese han system during the Edo period * Fukui Prefecture, a prefecture of Japan located in ...

. Nosaka would later base his short story "

Grave of the Fireflies is a 1988 Japanese animated war tragedy film based on a 1967 short story by Akiyuki Nosaka. It was written and directed by Isao Takahata, and animated by Studio Ghibli for Shinchosha Publishing. The film stars , , and . Set in the city o ...

" on these experiences.

Career

Nosaka is well known for children's stories about war. Two of his short stories, "Grave of the Fireflies" and "American Hijiki", won the 58th

Naoki Prize The Naoki Prize, officially , is a Japanese literary award presented biannually. It was created in 1935 by Kikuchi Kan, then editor of the ''Bungeishunjū'' magazine, and named in memory of novelist Naoki Sanjugo. Sponsored by the Society for the ...

in 1967. He is also noted for his preference for sexually explicit material and distinctive writing style, which has been likened to the comic-prose of the seventeenth-century Japanese writer

Ihara Saikaku was a Japanese poet and creator of the " floating world" genre of Japanese prose (''ukiyo-zōshi''). Born as Hirayama Tōgo (平山藤五), the son of a wealthy merchant in Osaka, he first studied haikai poetry under Matsunaga Teitoku and later ...

. His novel ''The Pornographers'' was translated into English by Michael Gallagher and published in 1968. It was also adapted into a live-action film, ''

The Pornographers is a 1966 satiric Japanese film directed by Shōhei Imamura. It is based on the novel ''Erogotoshitachi'' by Akiyuki Nosaka. Plot ''The Pornographers'' tells the story of porn filmmaker Mr. Subuyan Ogata, whose business is under threat from thie ...

'', directed by

Shōhei Imamura was a Japanese film director. His main interest as a filmmaker lay in the depiction of the lower strata of Japanese society. A key figure in the Japanese New Wave, who continued working into the 21st century, Imamura is the only director from J ...

. In December 1978, Nosaka was credited for giving former rugby player-turned pro wrestler Susumu Hara his ring name,

Ashura Hara (January 8, 1947April 28, 2015) was a Japanese rugby player and professional wrestler, better known by his ring name . Rugby career Susumu Hara began his rugby career in high school, playing for the Agricultural High School in the Isahaya regi ...

. He was elected to the

Japanese Diet The is the national legislature of Japan. It is composed of a lower house, called the House of Representatives (, ''Shūgiin''), and an upper house, the House of Councillors (, '' Sangiin''). Both houses are directly elected under a paralle ...

in 1983. Nosaka suffered a stroke in 2003 and although still affected by it, he kept writing a column for the daily ''

Mainichi Shimbun The is one of the major newspapers in Japan, published by In addition to the ''Mainichi Shimbun'', which is printed twice a day in several local editions, Mainichi also operates an English language news website called ''The Mainichi'' (previ ...

''. On NHK's December 10, 2015 7:00 pm broadcast announcing Nosaka's death, a veteran journalist was quoted as saying Nosaka was notable for questioning what most people consider common sense, but Japan has now entered an era in which this is no longer possible. The 1988

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

film ''

'', directed by

Isao Takahata was a Japanese director, screenwriter and producer. A co-founder of Studio Ghibli, he earned international critical acclaim for his work as a director of Japanese animated feature films. Born in Ujiyamada, Mie Prefecture, Takahata joined Toei ...

, was based on Nosaka's short story of the same name.

Selected works

* TV commercial and magazine articles (1950s) * (1963); English translation by Michael Gallagher, * (1967); English translation included in ''The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories'' (2017),

Jay Rubin Jay Rubin (born 1941) is an American academic and translator. He is one of the main translators of the works of the Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami into English. He has also written a guide to Japanese, ''Making Sense of Japanese'' (originally t ...

ed. * (1967); English translation by James R. Abrams, published in an issue of the ''Japan Quarterly'' (1978) * ; English translation by Ginny Tapley Takemori (2015), * ''The Cake Tree in the Ruins''; English translation by Ginny Tapley Takemori (2018),

References

External links

Akiyuki Nosaka's official home page
*
J'Lit , Authors : Akiyuki Nosaka* , Books from Japan
1930 births 2015 deaths 20th-century Japanese novelists 21st-century Japanese novelists Members of the House of Councillors (Japan) People from Kamakura Writers from Kanagawa Prefecture Male novelists Musicians from Kanagawa Prefecture Politicians from Kanagawa Prefecture 20th-century Japanese male writers 21st-century male writers {{japan-writer-stub