is an annual award given to distinguished literary works and activities in the sectors literature and art,

humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the t ...

and social science, natural science, and encyclopedic work, plus a special award. It was founded in 1947 and is sponsored by the Mainichi Newspapers Co., the publishing house of the

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 ...

Recipients (selected)

;1947 * Literature and art award for

Jun'ichirō Tanizaki was a Japanese author who is considered to be one of the most prominent figures in modern Japanese literature. The tone and subject matter of his work ranges from shocking depictions of sexuality and destructive erotic obsessions to subtle por ...

for ''

Sasameyuki is a novel by Japanese writer Jun'ichirō Tanizaki that was serialized from 1943 to 1948. It follows the lives of the wealthy Makioka family of Osaka from the autumn of 1936 to April 1941, focusing on the family's attempts to find a husband f ...

'' (''The Makioka Sisters'') * Literature and art award for

Yuriko Miyamoto was a Japanese novelist, short-story writer, social activist, and literary critic active during the Taishō and early Shōwa periods of Japan. She is best known for her autobiographical fiction and involvement in proletarian and women's libe ...

for ''Kazeshirigusa'' and ''Harimaheiya'' ;1948 * Literature and art award for Michio Takeyama for ''Biruma no tategoto'' ;1951 * Literature and art award for

Kōnosuke Hinatsu was the pen-name of a Japanese poet known for his romantic movement, romantic and gothic novel, gothic poetry patterned after English literature. His real name was Kunito Higuchi. Biography A native of what is now part of Iida, Nagano, Iida city ...

for ''Nihon gendaishi taikei'' ;1952 * Literature and art award for

Hiroshi Noma was a Japanese poet, novelist and essayist. According to literary scholar Doug Slaymaker, Noma is widely credited with having discovered or invented the style of writing called by the term "postwar literature" (''sengo bungaku'') in Japan. Ear ...

for ''Shinkū chitai'' ;1954 * Literature and art award for

Sue Sumii was a Japanese social reformer, writer, and novelist. She advocated for victims of discrimination, most notably the Burakumin. She is best known for her novel, . Early life Sumii attended and graduated Haramoto Women's High School, receiving a ...

for ''Yoru ake asa ake'' ;1955 * Literature and art award for

Ken Domon is one of the most renowned Japanese photographers of the 20th century. He is most celebrated as a photojournalist, though he may have been most prolific as a photographer of Buddhist temples and statuary. Biography Domon was born in Sakata, Y ...

for ''Murō-ji'' * Literature and art award for

Shigeharu Nakano was a Japanese writer and Japanese Communist Party (JCP) politician. Nakano was born in Maruoka, now part of Sakai, Fukui. In 1914 he enrolled in middle school in Fukui, Fukui, and attended high school in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa and Kanazawa, Ish ...

for ''Muragimo'' ;1958 * Literature and art award for

Shūsaku Endō was a Japanese author who wrote from the rare perspective of a Japanese Catholic. Internationally, he is known for his 1966 historical fiction novel ''Silence'', which was adapted into a 2016 film of the same name by director Martin Scorsese. ...

for ''Umi to dokuyaku'' ;1959 * Literature and art award for

Shūgorō Yamamoto , better known by the pen name of , was a Japanese novelist and short-story writer active during the Shōwa period of Japan. He was noted for his popular literature, and is known to have published works under at least fourteen different pen names ...

for ''Mominoki wa nokotta'' * Literature and art award for Saisei Murō for ''Waga aisuru shijin no denki'' * Literature and art award for

Junji Kinoshita was the foremost playwright of modern drama in postwar Japan. He was also a translator and scholar of Shakespeare's plays. Kinoshita’s achievements were not limited to Japan.Kinoshita, Junji. Between God and Man: A Judgment on War Crimes: a Play ...

for ''Dorama no sekai'' ;1960 * Literature and art award for Tomie Ōhara for ''En to iu onna'' ;1961 * Literature and art award for

Shōhei Ōoka was a Japanese novelist, literary critic, and lecturer and translator of French literature who was active during the Shōwa period of Japan. Ōoka belongs to the group of postwar writers whose World War II experiences at home and abroad figure p ...

for ''Kaei'' * Literature and art award for

Tarō Okamoto was a Japanese artist, art theorist, and writer. He is particularly well known for his avant-garde paintings and public sculptures and murals, and for his theorization of traditional Japanese culture and avant-garde artistic practices. Biograph ...

for ''Wasurerareta nihon'' ;1962 * Literature and art award for

Yasunari Kawabata was a Japanese novelist and short story writer whose spare, lyrical, subtly shaded prose works won him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1968, the first Japanese author to receive the award. His works have enjoyed broad international appeal an ...

for '' Nemure bijo'' (''The House of the Sleeping Beauties'') ;1963 * Literature and art award for

Kazuo Hirotsu was a Japanese novelist, literary critic and translator active in the Shōwa period. Early life Hirotsu was born in the Ushigome neighborhood Tokyo as the second son of the noted novelist Hirotsu Ryurō, whose pupils included Kafū Nagai.'' T ...

for ''Nengatsu no ahioto'' ;1964 * Literature and art award for

Morio Kita was the pen name of , a Japanese psychiatrist, novelist and essayist. Kita was the second son of poet Mokichi Saitō. Shigeta Saitō, his older brother, was also a psychiatrist. The essayist Yuka Saitō is Kita's daughter. Kita attended Aza ...

for ''Nireke no hitobito'' (''The House of Nire'') ;1965 * Literature and art award for

Haruo Umezaki was a Japanese writer of short stories and novels. Biography Born in Fukuoka, Kyushu, Umezaki studied at the 5th High School of Kumamoto University, later at the Tokyo Imperial University where he majored in Japanese literature. He then worked ...

for ''Genka'' ;1966 * Literature and art award for

for ''Mugenkidō'' ;1967 * Literature and art award for

Shōtarō Yasuoka was a Japanese writer. Biography Yasuoka was born in pre-war Japan in Kōchi, Kōchi, but as the son of a veterinary corpsman in the Imperial Army, he spent most of his youth moving from one military post to another. In 1944, he was conscript ...

for ''Maku ga orite kara'' ;1968 * Literature and art award for

Takeshi Kaikō was a prominent post-World War II Japanese novelist, short-story writer, essayist, literary critic Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influe ...

for ''Kagayakeru yami'' ;1969 * Literature and art award for

Jūkichi Uno (real name ; 27 September 1914 – 9 January 1988) was a Japanese actor. In 1950, he formed the with Osamu Takizawa and others. Personal life He is the father of musician Akira Terao. Filmography Honours *Medals of Honor (Japan), Medal wi ...

for ''Shingeki tanoshi kanashi'' ;1972 * Literature and art award for Junzō Shōno for ''Akio to Ryoji'' ;1973 * Literature and art award for Akira Abe for ''Sennen'' ;1974 * Literature and art award for

Saburō Shiroyama Saburō Shiroyama (城山三郎, b. Eiichi Sugiura) (1927–2007) is a Japanese novelist. Shiroyama was born in Aichi Prefecture, and studied economics at Hitotsubashi University. He later taught economics at Nagoya Gakuin University. Shiroyam ...

for ''Rakujitsu moyu'' * Literature and art award for Shin'ichirō Nakamura for ''Kono hyakunen no shōsetsu'' ;1976 * Literature and art award for Hideo Takubo for ''Kami no wa'' ;1977 * Literature and art award for

Kenji Nakagami was a Japanese novelist and essayist. He is well known as the first, and so far the only, post-war Japanese writer to identify himself publicly as a Burakumin is a name for a low-status social group in Japan. It is a term for ethnic Japanese p ...

for ''Karekinada'' ;1978 * Literature and art award for Chikao Tanaka for ''Gekiteki buntairon josetsu'' ;1994 * Literature and art award for

Hiroyuki Agawa (December 24, 1920 – August 3, 2015) was a Japanese people, Japanese author. He was known for his fiction centered on World War II, as well as his biographies and essays. Literary career Agawa was born in Hiroshima, Japan. As a high school ...

for ''Shiga Naoya'' ;1995 * Literature and art award for

Tadao Satō was a Japanese film critic, theorist and historian. His real name was . Overviews Born in Niigata, Niigata Prefecture, Japan, He published more than a hundred books on film, and was one of Japan's foremost scholars and historians addressin ...

for ''Nihon eiga-shi'' ;2001 * Literature and art award for Taeko Tomioka for ''Arikuchi Shinobu nōto'' ;2004 * Literature and art award for

Kazushige Abe is a contemporary Japanese writer. Works * ''Amerika no Yoru'' (アメリカの夜 ''American Night''). 1994. Kodansha. (likely reference to film technique “day for night”, known in French as “la nuit américaine”) Day for Night (film) ...

for ''Shinsemia'' ;2005 * Literature and art award for

Ryū Murakami is a Japanese novelist, short story writer, essayist, and filmmaker. His novels explore human nature through themes of disillusionment, drug use, surrealism, murder, and war, set against the dark backdrop of Japan. His best known novels are ''Al ...

for '' Hanto o deyo'' (''From the Fatherland, with Love'') ;2007 * Literature and art award for Shuichi Yoshida for ''Akunin'' (''Villain'') ;2009 * Literature and art award for

Haruki Murakami is a Japanese writer. His novels, essays, and short stories have been bestsellers in Japan and internationally, with his work translated into 50 languages and having sold millions of copies outside Japan. He has received numerous awards for his ...

for ''

1Q84 is a novel written by Japanese writer Haruki Murakami, first published in three volumes in Japan in 2009–10. It covers a fictionalized year of 1984 in parallel with a "real" one. The novel is a story of how a woman named Aomame begins to no ...

'' ;2020 * Humanities and social science award for Takehiko Kariya for ''Oitsuita Kindai Keita Kindai'' (''Who killed Japan's Modernity? What Comes after 'Catch-Up?)

References

{{Reflist Japanese literary awards Poetry awards Non-fiction literary awards