was a Japanese writer and poet. He was best known for his memoirs ''Coffinman: The Journal of a Buddhist Mortician'', published in 1993. The book was based on his diaries during a period in which he worked as a mortician in the 1970s, a profession which is traditionally regarded as a taboo in Japan due to their perception of death. In 2008 his memoirs were adapted into a successful Academy Award-winning feature film, '' Departures,'' by filmmaker Yōjirō Takita. Aoki died on 6 August 2022, at the age of 85.

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1937 births 2022 deaths Japanese Buddhists 20th-century Japanese poets 21st-century Japanese poets 20th-century Japanese novelists 21st-century Japanese novelists People related to Jōdo Shinshū People from Toyama Prefecture {{Japan-writer-stub