was a
Japanese
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* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
author
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and
guitarist
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whose 1960 short story ''Fūryū mutan'' ("Tale of an Elegant Dream") caused a nationwide uproar and led to an attempt by an ultranationalist to assassinate the president of the magazine that published it.
Biography
Fukazawa was born in
Isawa, Yamanashi
was a town located in Higashiyatsushiro District, Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan.
As of 2003, the town had an estimated population of 27,603 and a density of 1,850.07 persons per km². The total area was 14.92 km².
It was famous for its hot spri ...
, Japan.
His first novel, , won the prestigious
''Chūō Kōron'' Prize,
announcing his status as a rising star in the literary world, and has twice been adapted for film:
first
First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1).
First or 1st may also refer to:
*World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement
Arts and media Music
* 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...
by
Keisuke Kinoshita
was a Japanese film director and screenwriter.Ronald Berganbr>"A satirical eye on Japan: Keisuke Kinoshita" ''The Guardian'', 5 January 1999. While lesser-known internationally than contemporaries such as Akira Kurosawa, Kenji Mizoguchi and Yasu ...
in 1958,
and
again
Again may refer to:
Entertainment
* ''Again'' (video game), a 2009 adventure game for the Nintendo DS
* '' Again!!'' manga
* ''Again!'', a 2011 children's book by Emily Gravett
* ''Again'' (film), a 2015 Japanese film
Music
* Again (band), a ...
by
Shōhei Imamura
was a Japanese film director. His main interest as a filmmaker lay in the depiction of the lower strata of Japanese society. A key figure in the Japanese New Wave, who continued working into the 21st century, Imamura is the only director from J ...
in 1983.
Imamura's film won the
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...
Palme d'Or
The Palme d'Or (; en, Golden Palm) is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festival's highest prize was the Grand Prix du Fe ...
.
Shimanaka Incident
In the fall of 1960, the mainstream monthly magazine ''
Chūō Kōron
is a monthly Japanese literary magazine (), first established during the Meiji period and continuing to this day. It is published by its namesake-bearing Chūōkōron Shinsha (formerly Chūōkōron-sha). The headquarters is in Tokyo.
''Chūō ...
'' published his satirical short story ''Furyū mutan'' (風流夢譚, “The Tale of an Elegant Dream").
In the story, an unnamed protagonist narrates a dream sequence in which leftists take over the Imperial Palace and behead the Emperor and Empress, as well as the Crown Prince and Crown Princess, before an enthusiastic crowd.
This story provoked fury in the
Imperial Household Agency and among Japanese right-wing ultranationalists.
On February 1, 1961, in response to the story,
Kazutaka Komori
was a Japanese right-wing ultranationalist youth who attempted to assassinate Japanese journalist and magazine publisher Hōji Shimanaka in February 1961, in what became known as the Shimanaka Incident. Komori sought retribution for a fictional s ...
, a seventeen-year-old rightist, broke into the home of
Hōji Shimanaka
was a Japanese magazine publisher who was the president and publisher of the prominent monthly magazine ''Chūō Kōron'' for nearly five decades. According to Shimanaka's longtime friend and sometime rival Kengo Tanaka, the publisher of compet ...
, ''Chūō Kōron'' magazine's president, killed his maid and severely wounded his wife.
Fukazawa received death threats on a daily basis,
and after offering a tearful public apology, went into hiding for five years. His promising literary career went into a long hiatus, and although he later returned to writing, he never fully recovered his "rising star" status.
In later years, he could be found serving grilled bean cakes (''imagawayaki'') in a working class Tokyo neighborhood at a stall called "Dream Shop" (''Yumeya'').
The aftermath of the meant that criticism of the Imperial Family, and discussion of the role or existence of the Emperor, became taboo.
Selected prizes
* 1956 ''Chūō Kōron'' Prize for ''
The Ballad of Narayama'' ()
* 1981
Tanizaki Prize
The Tanizaki Prize (谷崎潤一郎賞 ''Tanizaki Jun'ichirō Shō''), named in honor of the Japanese novelist Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, is one of Japan's most sought-after literary awards. It was established in 1965 by the publishing company Chūō K ...
for ''Michinoku no ningyotachi'' (みちのくの人形たち)
Selected works
* ''Narayama bushikō'', 楢山節考, 1956.
* ''Tōhoku no Zunmu-tachi'', 東北の神武たち, 1957.
* 笛吹川, 1958.
* 言わなければよかったのに日記, 1958.
* 東京のプリンスたち, 1959.
* 千秋楽, 1964.
* 甲州子守唄, 1964.
* 人間滅亡の唄, 1966.
* 庶民烈伝, 1970.
* 盆栽老人とその周辺, 1973.
* 無妙記, 1975.
* 妖木犬山椒, 1975.
* ''Michinoku no ningyōtachi'' (みちのくの人形たち), 1979.
* ''Chotto ippuku meido no michikusa'' (ちょっと 一服 冥土 の 道草), Tōkyō : Bungei Shunjū, 1983.
* 極楽まくらおとし図, 1984.
Records
* ''Sobo no mukashigatari'' (Nippon Columbia 1973)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fukazawa, Shichiro
1914 births
1987 deaths
Musicians from Yamanashi Prefecture
20th-century Japanese novelists
Writers from Yamanashi Prefecture