is a Japanese countryside physician and writer whose work records countryside experiences of numerous individuals (typically, his patients).

Biography

Saga has written various books. Two, consisting of the recollections of the ordinary lives of people in the early twentieth century in the town of

Tsuchiura is a Cities of Japan, city located in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 138,033 in 60,069 households and a population density of 1123 persons per km2. The percentage of the population aged over 65 was 29.7%. Th ...

Ibaraki Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Ibaraki Prefecture has a population of 2,871,199 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Ibaraki Prefecture borders Fukushima Prefecture to the north, ...

, were translated into English as "Memories of Silk and Straw" and "Memories of Wind and Waves". He also wrote the 1989 ''

Confessions of a Yakuza is a book by Japanese doctor and author Junichi Saga (1991). It recounts a series of stories from the life of his patient Eiji Ijichi, a former Yakuza boss, as told in the last months of his life. The book starts with the teenage Ijichi running ...

''. The 1989 book was called "colorful, unorthodox" by the ''

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'', "a witness to the past" by ''

Le Monde ''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...

'', and "vivid and accurate" by the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

''. ''Confessions of a Yakuza'' also briefly caused media coverage in 2003 when about a dozen passages were repurposed as lyrics by

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

for his album '' Love and Theft''.

Bibliography

*''Memories of Silk and Straw'', translated into English by Gerry O. Evans *''Memories of Wind and Waves'', translated into English by Juliet Carpenter *''Confessions of a Yakuza''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saga, Junichi Japanese writers 1941 births Living people