was a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

writer and screenwriter. He was one of the most well known and highly regarded science fiction writers in Japan.

Early life

Born Minoru "Sakyo" Komatsu in

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2. ...

, he was a graduate of

Kyoto University , mottoeng = Freedom of academic culture , established = , type = National university, Public (National) , endowment = ¥ 316 billion (2.4 1000000000 (number), billion USD) , faculty = 3,480 (Teaching Staff) , administrative_staff ...

where he studied

Italian literature Italian literature is written in the Italian language, particularly within Italy. It may also refer to literature written by Italian people, Italians or in Languages of Italy, other languages spoken in Italy, often languages that are closely re ...

. After graduating, he worked at various jobs, including as a magazine reporter and a writer for stand-up comedy acts."Sci-fi pioneer Komatsu dies at age 80"
''The Japan Times'', July 29, 2011

Career

Komatsu's writing career began in the 1960s. Reading

Kōbō Abe , pen name of , was a Japanese writer, playwright, musician, photographer, and inventor. He is best known for his 1962 novel '' The Woman in the Dunes'' that was made into an award-winning film by Hiroshi Teshigahara in 1964. Abe has often bee ...

and Italian classics made Komatsu feel modern literature and science fiction are the same. In 1961, he submitted for the 1st Scientific-fiction Contest of Hayakawa's

SF Magazine is a science fiction magazine published by Hayakawa Shobō in Japan. It was Japan’s first successful science fiction prozine. History ''S-F Magazine'' was established in 1960. It began publication with the February 1960 issue, which appea ...

: "Peace on Earth" was a short story in which

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

does not end in 1945 and a young man prepares to defend Japan against the Allied invasion. Komatsu received an honourable mention and 5000 yen.''The New York Times'' obituary,
Sci-fi writer got the continental drift
August 22, 2011 via Sydney Morning Herald He won the same contest the following year with the story, "Memoirs of an Eccentric Time Traveller". His first novel, ''The Japanese Apache'', was published two years later and sold 50,000 copies. In the West he is best known for the novels ''

Japan Sinks is a disaster novel by Japanese writer Sakyo Komatsu, published in 1973. Komatsu took nine years to complete the work. It was published in two volumes, both released at the same time. The novel received the 27th Mystery Writers of Japan Award ...

'' (1973) and '' Sayonara Jupiter'' (1982). Both were adapted to film, '' Submersion of Japan'' (1973) and '' Bye Bye Jupiter'' (1984). The story "The Savage Mouth" was translated by

Judith Merril Judith Josephine Grossman (January 21, 1923 – September 12, 1997), who took the pen-name Judith Merril around 1945, was an American and then Canadian science fiction writer, editor and political activist, and one of the first women to be wid ...

and has been anthologized. At the time of publication, his apocalyptic vision of a sunk Japan wiped out by shifts incurred through geographic stress worried a Japan still haunted by the atomic devastation of

Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui h ...

and

Nagasaki is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. It became the sole port used for trade with the Portuguese and Dutch during the 16th through 19th centuries. The Hidden Christian Sites in the ...

. He was inspired to write it thinking of what would happen if the nationalistic Japanese lost their land, and ironically prefigured the

2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami The occurred at 14:46 JST (05:46 UTC) on 11 March. The magnitude 9.0–9.1 (M) undersea megathrust earthquake had an epicenter in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku region, and lasted approximately six minutes ...

that triggered a nuclear plant disaster decades later on March 11, 2011 – the result of which he was interested in "to see how Japan would evolve" after the catastrophe. Komatsu was involved in organizing the Japan World Exposition in Osaka Prefecture in 1970. In 1984, Komatsu served as a technical consultant for a live concert in

Linz Linz ( , ; cs, Linec) is the capital of Upper Austria and third-largest city in Austria. In the north of the country, it is on the Danube south of the Czech border. In 2018, the population was 204,846. In 2009, it was a European Capital of ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

by Japanese electronic composer

Isao Tomita , often known simply as Tomita, was a Japanese composer, regarded as one of the pioneers of electronic music and space music, and as one of the most famous producers of analog synthesizer arrangements. In addition to creating note-by-note realiz ...

. He won the 1985

Nihon SF Taisho Award The is a Japanese science fiction award. It has been compared to the Nebula Award as it is given by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of Japan or SFWJ. The Grand Prize is selected from not only Science Fiction novels, but also various SF mo ...

. Komatsu was one of two Author Guests of Honor at Nippon 2007, the

65th World Science Fiction Convention The 65th World Science Fiction Convention ( Worldcon), also known as Nippon 2007, was held on 30 August–3 September 2007 at the Pacifico Yokohama Convention Center and adjoining hotels in Yokohama, Japan. The organising committee was chaired ...

in 2007 in

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of To ...

, Japan. This was the first

Worldcon Worldcon, or more formally the World Science Fiction Convention, the annual convention of the World Science Fiction Society (WSFS), is a science fiction convention. It has been held each year since 1939 (except for the years 1942 to 1945, during ...

to be held in Asia. With Shin'ichi Hoshi and

Yasutaka Tsutsui is a Japanese novelist, science fiction author, and actor. His ''Yumenokizaka bunkiten'' won the Tanizaki Prize in 1987. He has also won the 1981 Izumi Kyoka award, the 1989 Kawabata Yasunari award, and the 1992 Nihon SF Taisho Award. Writing ...

, Komatsu was considered one of the masters of Japanese science fiction.

Death

Komatsu died on July 26, 2011 in Osaka from complications with pneumonia at the age of 80. Five days before his death, his quarterly publication, ''Sakyo Komatsu Magazine'', released an issue featuring an article on his thoughts about the

2011 tsunami Eleven or 11 may refer to: *11 (number), the natural number following 10 and preceding 12 * one of the years 11 BC, AD 11, 1911, 2011, or any year ending in 11 Literature * ''Eleven'' (novel), a 2006 novel by British author David Llewellyn *'' ...

. In the article, Komatsu expressed hope that his country would evolve after the catastrophe. "I had thought I wouldn't mind dying any day ... but now I'm feeling like living a little bit longer and seeing how Japan will go on hereafter," he wrote.

Works in English translation

;Novels *''

'' *'' Virus: The Day of Resurrection'' (

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 ...

, 2012) ;Short stories *"The Savage Mouth" **''The Best Japanese Science Fiction Stories'', Dembner Books, 1989 / Barricade Books, 1997 **''Speculative Japan'', Kurodahan Press, 2007 *"Take Your Choice" (''The Best Japanese Science Fiction Stories'', Dembner Books, 1989 / Barricade Books, 1997) *"The Kudan's Mother" (''Kaiki: Uncanny Tales from Japan, Volume 2: Country Delights'', Kurodahan Press, 2010)

Works

A complete works collection is being published in on-demand-print format by Jōsai Kokusai Daigaku Shuppankai.

Novels

* (1964) * (1964); English translation: '' Virus: The Day of Resurrection'' (2012) * (1965) * (1965) * (1966) * (1966) * (1969) * (1972) * (1973); English translation (abridged): ''

'' (1976) * (1977) * (1977) * (1977) * (1981) * (1982) * (1988) * (1985) * (1987, 2000) (unfinished) * (2006) (co-written with

Kōshū Tani is a Japanese science fiction writer. He graduated from the Osaka Institute of Technology, and worked as a volunteer in Nepal and the Philippines. He made his professional debut with the story ''137th Mobile Brigade'' in 1979 while still in N ...

)

Short story collections

* (1963) * (1964) * (1965) * (1967) * (1967) * (1968) * (1968) * (1973) ;Manga * Maboroshi no Komatsu Sakyō Mori Minoru Manga Zenshū (2002)

Adaptations

Theatrical film

* '' Tidal Wave'' (1973), based on ''

'' * ''

ESPY An ESPY Award (short for Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly Award) is an accolade currently presented by the American broadcast television network ABC, and previously ESPN (as of the 2017 ESPY Awards the latter still airs them in the form ...

'' (1974) * ''

Virus A virus is a submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of an organism. Viruses infect all life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea. Since Dmitri Ivanovsky's 1 ...

'' (1980) * '' Sayonara Jupiter'' (1984) * ''

Tokyo Blackout (Disappearance of the Capital) is a 1987 Japanese science fiction film directed by Toshio Masuda. It is based on Sakyo Komatsu's novel ''Shuto shōshitsu'' which won the 6th Nihon SF Taisho Award in 1985. The film's score was composed by Mau ...

'' (1987), based on ''Shuto shōshitsu'' * ''

Sinking of Japan is a 2006 Japanese ''tokusatsu'' disaster film directed by Shinji Higuchi. It is an adaptation of the novel ''Japan Sinks'' and a remake of its earlier film adaptation '' Tidal Wave'', both released in the year 1973. It stars Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, ...

'' (2006), based on ''Japan Sinks'', remake of ''Tidal Wave''

Television

* ''Uchūjin Pipi'' (1965,

NHK , also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee. NHK operates two terrestr ...

) * ''Kūchūtoshi 008'' (1969, NHK) —

Science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

Marionette A marionette (; french: marionnette, ) is a puppet controlled from above using wires or strings depending on regional variations. A marionette's puppeteer is called a marionettist. Marionettes are operated with the puppeteer hidden or reveale ...

drama * ''

Saru no gundan is a 1974 Japanese science fiction television series. Not connected to Pierre Boulle's ''Planet of the Apes'', it was produced by Tsuburaya Productions, and shot on 16mm film in color. The series ran on Tokyo Broadcasting System from October 6, ...

'' (1974, TBS) —Science fiction

Tokusatsu is a Japanese term for live action film or television drama that makes heavy use of practical special effects. ''Tokusatsu'' entertainment mainly refers to science fiction, War film, war, fantasy, or Horror film, horror media featuring such te ...

drama * '' Nihon Chinbotsu'' (1974, TBS) —Television version of film * ''Komatsu sakyō anime gekijō'' (Sakyo Komatsu's Animation Theater) (1989) * '' Japan Sinks: 2020'' — Netflix anime adaptation (2020)

References

External links

Sakyo Komatsu Home Page (In Japanese)J'Lit , Authors : Sakyo Komatsu , Books from Japan

Tribute him by Aritsune Toyoda, translated by Leslie Furlong
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Komatsu, Sakyo 1931 births 2011 deaths Kyoto University alumni Japanese science fiction writers

Japanese screenwriters Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

Mystery Writers of Japan Award winners Writers from Osaka Deaths from pneumonia in Japan