was a Japanese writer.
Biography
Jun'ichi Watanabe was born in
Kamisunagawa,
Hokkaido
is Japan's second largest island and comprises the largest and northernmost prefecture, making up its own region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; the two islands are connected by the undersea railway Seikan Tunnel.
The la ...
, Japan.
His starting point as a literate was the death of a classmate who was his first love in high school.
He published his first works while still studying at
Sapporo Medical University, where he graduated in 1958.
He specialised in
orthopedic surgery
Orthopedic surgery or orthopedics ( alternatively spelt orthopaedics), is the branch of surgery concerned with conditions involving the musculoskeletal system. Orthopedic surgeons use both surgical and nonsurgical means to treat musculoskeletal ...
, while at the same time writing medical, historical, and biographical novels.
Following the scandal about the first heart transplant operation performed in Japan in 1968, which became known as the "Wada incident", Watanabe left his medical profession and concentrated on writing.
Watanabe wrote more than 50 novels in total, and won awards including the 1970
Naoki Prize for ''Hikari to kage'' (lit. "Light and shadow"), and the Yoshikawa Eiji Prize in 1979 for ''Toki rakujitsu'' ("The Setting Sun in the Distance) and ''Nagasaki roshia yujokan'' ("The Russian brothel of Nagasaki").
He gained wide attention with a series of sexually explicit novels, including the 1997 bestseller ''
A Lost Paradise
is 1997 Japanese novel by author Junichi Watanabe. It tells the story of a 54-year-old married former magazine editor, his affair with a 37-year-old married typesetter and their double-suicide. The couple, Kūki and Rinko, are modeled after th ...
'', which was made into a film and a TV miniseries.
He died on 30 April 2014 of
prostate cancer
Prostate cancer is cancer of the prostate. Prostate cancer is the second most common cancerous tumor worldwide and is the fifth leading cause of cancer-related mortality among men. The prostate is a gland in the male reproductive system that sur ...
in
Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...
.
Works in English translation
*1969: ''Invitation to Suicide'' (''Jisatsu no susume''). In: ''Autumn Wind and Other Stories''
*1970: ''Beyond the Blossoming Fields'' (''Hanauzumi'')
*1997: ''A Lost Paradise'' (''Shitsurakuen'')
*2009: ''Beyond the Blossoming Fields''(''Deborah Iwabuchi, Anna Isozaki'')
Works in French translation
*2021:''Château Rouge''(''Kenzo Suzuki, Dominique Sylvain'')
Works in Spanish translation
*2009:''Ginko.la Primera Doctora''(''Seix Barral'')
Awards
*1965 (Showa 40) - 12th Shincho Literary Award - "Death Makeup"
*1970 (Showa 45) - 63rd Naoki Prize - "Light and Shadow"
*1979 (Showa 54) - 14th Yoshikawa Eiji Literature Award - "Distant Setting Sun" and "Nagasaki Russian Courtesan Hall"
*1983 (Showa 58) - 48th Bungeishunju Reader's Award - "Voice of Silence: The Life of Mrs. Nogi Nokibe"
*2003 Order of the Sacred Treasure, Purple Ribbon
*2001 Knight's Cross of the Order of the Falcon (Iceland, October 16, 2001): Presented at the opening of the Embassy of Iceland in Japan.
References
External links
Junichi Watanabe's literature house
*
Japanese writers
1933 births
2014 deaths
Deaths from prostate cancer in Japan
Japanese erotica writers
Naoki Prize winners
Writers from Hokkaido
{{Japan-writer-stub