The Naoki Prize, officially , is a Japanese

literary award A literary award or literary prize is an award presented in recognition of a particularly lauded literary piece or body of work. It is normally presented to an author. Organizations Most literary awards come with a corresponding award ceremony. M ...

presented biannually. It was created in 1935 by

Kikuchi Kan , also known as Kan Kikuchi (which uses the same kanji as his real name), was a Japanese author. He established the publishing company Bungeishunjū, the monthly magazine of the same name, the Japan Writer's Association and both the Akutagawa ...

, then editor of the ''Bungeishunjū'' magazine, and named in memory of novelist Naoki Sanjugo. Sponsored by the Society for the Promotion of Japanese Literature, the award recognizes "the best work of popular

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to ...

in any format by a new, rising, or (reasonably young) established author." The winner receives a watch and one million yen. Kikuchi founded the Naoki Prize with the Akutagawa Prize, which targets a new or rising author of literary fiction. The two prizes are viewed as "two sides of the same coin" and inseparable from one another. Because of the prestige associated with the Naoki Prize and the considerable attention the winner receives from the media, it, along with the Akutagawa Prize, is one of Japan's most sought after literary awards of recognition.

Winners

Bungeishunjū maintains the official archive of past Naoki Prize winners.

1st–100th

101st to present

Winners available in English translation

* 1961 (45th) - Tsutomu Minakami (Tsutomu Mizukami), ''The Temple of the Wild Geese'' (''The Temple of the Wild Geese and Bamboo Dolls of Echizen'', trans. Dennis C. Washburn, Dalkey Archive Press, 2008) *1973 (69th) - Hideo Osabe (Hideo Osabe), ''Tsugaru Jonkarabushi'' and ''Tsugaru Yosarebushi'' (In ''Voices from the Snow'', trans. James N. Westerhoven, Hirosaki University Press, 2009) * 1979 (81st) - Takashi Atōda, ''Napoleon Crazy'' (Short story collection) ** "Napoleon Crazy" (''Napoleon Crazy and other stories'', trans. Stanleigh H. Jones,

Kodansha is a Japanese privately-held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha is the largest Japanese publishing company, and it produces the manga magazines ''Nakayoshi'', '' Afternoon'', '' Evening'', ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' ...

International, 1986 / ''

Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine ''Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine'' is a bi-monthly American digest size fiction magazine specializing in crime fiction, particularly detective fiction, and mystery fiction. Launched in fall 1941 by Mercury Press, ''EQMM'' is named after the fict ...

'', March 1989) ** "The Visitor" (''Napoleon Crazy and other stories'', trans. Stanleigh H. Jones, Kodansha International, 1986 / ''Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine'', December 1988) ** "The Transparent Fish" (''Napoleon Crazy and other stories'', trans. Stanleigh H. Jones, Kodansha International, 1986) ** "Of Golf and Its Beginnings" (''The Square Persimmon and other stories'', trans. Millicent M. Horton,

Tuttle Publishing Tuttle Publishing, originally the Charles E. Tuttle Company, is a book publishing company that includes Tuttle, Periplus Editions, and Journey Editions.

, 1991) ** "A Treatise on Count St. German" (''The Square Persimmon and other stories'', trans. Millicent M. Horton, Tuttle Publishing, 1991) * 1986 (96th) -

Go Osaka is a Japanese writer of crime fiction, hardboiled, thriller, spy fiction and western fiction. He served as the 11th President of the Mystery Writers of Japan from 2001 to 2005. Outside of his literary works, he is also known for his interest i ...

, ''The Red Star of Cadiz'' (trans. Usha Jayaraman, Kurodahan Press, 2008) * 1996 (115th) -

Asa Nonami is a Japanese crime fiction and horror writer. She is a member of the Mystery Writers of Japan. Nonami attended Waseda University where she studied Sociology but dropped out to take a job at an advertising agency. She became a published auth ...

, ''The Hunter: A Detective Takako Otomichi Mystery'' (trans.

Juliet Winters Carpenter Juliet Winters Carpenter (born 1948) is an American translator of modern Japanese literature. Born in the American Midwest, she studied Japanese literature at the University of Michigan and the Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies ...

International, 2006) * 1997 (117th) -

Jirō Asada is the pen name of , a Japanese writer. Inspired by Yukio Mishima, who tried to stage a coup d'état among Japan Self-Defense Forces then committed suicide after the coup was failed, Asada enlisted in the SDF after finishing his studies. He ch ...

, ''The Stationmaster'' (trans. Terry Gallagher,

Viz Media VIZ Media LLC is an American manga publisher, anime distributor and entertainment company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1986 as VIZ LLC. In 2005, VIZ LLC and ShoPro Entertainment merged to form the current VIZ M ...

, 2009 /

Shueisha (lit. "Gathering of Intellect Publishing Co., Ltd.") is a Japanese company headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The company was established in 1925 as the entertainment-related publishing division of Japanese publisher Shogakukan. The fol ...

English Edition, 2013) * 1998 (119th) - Chōkitsu Kurumatani, ''The Paradise Bird Tattoo'' (trans. Kenneth J. Bryson,

Counterpoint In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more musical lines (or voices) which are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. It has been most commonly identified in the European classical tra ...

, 2010) * 2000 (123rd) -

Yoichi Funado better known by his pseudonym was a Japanese writer of adventure fiction. Biography Funado was born as Kenji Harada on February 8, 1944. During his student days, he traveled to Alaska. He graduated from Waseda University. Funado wrote approxi ...

, ''May in the Valley of the Rainbow'' (trans. Eve Alison Nyren, Vertical, 2006) * 2005 (134th) - Keigo Higashino, '' The Devotion of Suspect X'' (trans.

Alexander O. Smith Alexander O. Smith is a professional Japanese to English translator and author. While his output covers many areas such as adaptation of Japanese novels, manga, song lyrics, anime scripts, and various academic works, he is best known for his sof ...

, Minotaur Books, 2011)

Nominees available in English translation

* 1963 (49th) - Toshiyuki Kajiyama, "The Remembered Shadow of the Yi Dynasty" (''The Clan Records: Five Stories of Korea'', trans. Yoshiko Dykstra,

University of Hawaii Press A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

, 1995) * 1963 (50th) - Masako Togawa, ''The Lady Killer'' (trans. Simon Grove, Dodd, Mead and Company, 1985) * 1983 (89th) - Kenzo Kitakata, ''The Cage'' (trans. Paul Warham, Vertical, 2006) * 1988 (100th) -

Joh Sasaki is a Japanese writer and journalist; chiefly known for his historical fiction and mystery novels. Biography Joh Sasaki was born in Yubari, Hokkaido, Japan. He spent his early youth in Nakashibetsu City and later ventured to Sapporo where Sas ...

, ''Zero Over Berlin'' (trans. Hiroko Yoda with Matt Alt, Vertical, 2004) * 1991 (105th) - Miyuki Miyabe, ''The Sleeping Dragon'' (trans. Deborah Iwabuchi,

America, 2010) * 1992 (108th) - Miyuki Miyabe, ''

All She Was Worth ''All She Was Worth'' is a crime novel by Miyuki Miyabe. It was originally published under the Japanese title ''Kasha'' (Japanese: 火車). Plot introduction In 1992, Tokyo Metropolitan Police Detective Shunsuke Honma, on leave due to an inciden ...

'' (trans.

Alfred Birnbaum Alfred Birnbaum (born 1955)Our Authors: Alfred Birnbaum

, Mariner Books, 1999) * 1996 (115th) - Koji Suzuki, '' Dark Water'' (trans. Glynne Walley, Vertical, 2004) * 1997 (118th) -

Natsuo Kirino (born October 7, 1951, in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture) is the pen name of Mariko Hashioka, a Japanese novelist and a leading figure in the recent boom of female writers of Japanese detective fiction. Biography Kirino is the middle child of th ...

, ''

Out Out may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Out'' (1957 film), a documentary short about the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 * ''Out'' (1982 film), an American film directed by Eli Hollander * ''Out'' (2002 film), a Japanese film ba ...

'' (trans. Stephen Snyder,

, 2003 /

Vintage Vintage, in winemaking, is the process of picking grapes and creating the finished product—wine (see Harvest (wine)). A vintage wine is one made from grapes that were all, or primarily, grown and harvested in a single specified year. In certa ...

, 2005) * 1998 (120th) - Keigo Higashino, '' Naoko'' (trans. Kerim Yasar, Vertical, 2004) * 2000 (124th) -

Hideo Yokoyama is a Japanese novelist. Yokoyama specializes in mystery novels. He repeated his Kono Mystery ga Sugoi! No. 1 ranking in 2013 with '' Six Four'' (64). The English edition of ''Six Four'', translated by Jonathan Lloyd-Davies, was shortlisted ...

, "Motive" (original title: Dōki) (trans. Beth Cary, ''

'', May 2008) * 2001 (126th) -

Ira Ishida is a Japanese novelist and TV commentator. After graduating from Seikei University, he worked for a number of different advertising production companies and as a freelance copywriter. In 1997, he published his first short story collection, ' ...

, ''Call boy'' (trans. Lamar Stone,

English Edition, 2013) * 2002 (127th) -

Hideo Okuda Hideo (ひでお) is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: * Hideo Den (田英夫, 1923–2009), Japanese politician and news presenter * Hideo Fujimoto (藤本英雄, 1918–1997), Japanese baseball player * Hid ...

, '' In the Pool'' (trans. Giles Murray, Stone Bridge Press, 2006) * 2005 (133rd) -

Hideo Furukawa Hideo (ひでお) is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: * Hideo Den (田英夫, 1923–2009), Japanese politician and news presenter * Hideo Fujimoto (藤本英雄, 1918–1997), Japanese baseball player * Hid ...

, ''Belka, Why Don't You Bark?'' (trans. Michael Emmerich,

, 2012) * 2005 (134th) - Kōtarō Isaka, "The Precision of the Agent of Death" (original title: Shinigami no Seido) (trans. Beth Cary, ''Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine'', July 2006 / ''Passport to Crime'',

Running Press Running Press is an American publishing company and member of the Perseus Books Group. The publisher's offices are located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with many of the corporate functions taking place in Perseus' New York City headquarters. It ...

, 2007) * 2011 (145th) - Kazuaki Takano, ''Genocide of One'' (trans.

Philip Gabriel James Philip Gabriel (born 1953) is an American translator and Japanologist. He is a full professor and former department chair of the University of Arizona's Department of East Asian Studies and is one of the major translators into English of the ...

Mulholland Books Mulholland Books (US) is an imprint of Little, Brown and Company, a division of the Hachette Book Group. It specializes in publishing mysteries, thrillers, and suspense novels. History Little, Brown and Company announced the creation of Mulho ...

, 2014)

Current members of the selection committee

(As of 2014) *

* Mariko Hayashi ( ja) * Keigo Higashino * Shizuka Ijūin ( ja) *

* Kenzo Kitakata * Miyuki Miyabe * Masamitsu Miyagitani ( ja) *

Kaoru Takamura is a Japanese writer from Osaka. She has won numerous Japanese literary awards, including the Mystery Writers of Japan Award, the Japan Adventure Fiction Association Prize, the Naoki Prize, the Yomiuri Prize, and the Noma Literary Prize, and he ...

( ja)

References

External links

J'Lit , Awards : Naoki Prize , Books from Japan
{{Authority control Japanese literary awards Awards established in 1935 Literary awards honouring young writers Fiction awards 1935 establishments in Japan