from Niigata 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 ...

author. He wrote a number of historical novels. Politician

Kenji Yamaoka is a Japanese politician of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet (national legislature). Overview A native of Oyama, Tochigi and graduate of Keio University, he was elected to the first of ...

is an adopted son. In 1968, he won the

Yoshikawa Eiji was a Japanese historical novelist. Among his best-known novels are revisions of older classics. He was mainly influenced by classics such as ''The Tale of the Heike'', ''Tale of Genji'', ''Water Margin'' and ''Romance of the Three Kingdoms'', m ...

Prize for his historical novel ''Tokugawa Ieyasu''.

Awards

* 1958 - Chunichi Prize * 1967 - Shin Hasegawa Prize * 1968 -

Prize * 1973-

Medal with Purple Ribbon are medals awarded by the Government of Japan. They are awarded to individuals who have done meritorious deeds and also to those who have achieved excellence in their field of work. The Medals of Honor were established on December 7, 1881, and we ...

* 1978 - 2nd Class,

Order of the Sacred Treasure The is a Japanese order, established on 4 January 1888 by Emperor Meiji as the Order of Meiji. Originally awarded in eight classes (from 8th to 1st, in ascending order of importance), since 2003 it has been awarded in six classes, the lowest ...

Selected published works

* ''Otoko no Koi'' (1938) * ''Marshall

Yamamoto Isoroku was a Marshal Admiral of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) and the commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet during World War II until he was killed. Yamamoto held several important posts in the IJN, and undertook many of its changes and reor ...

'' (1944) * Young Chiba Shusaku (1955) * '' Chiba Shūsaku '' (1952-54) * ''

Tokugawa Ieyasu was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan, which ruled Japan from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was one of the three "Great Unifiers" of Japan, along with his former lord Oda Nobunaga and fellow ...

'' (1953-67) - 28 volumes * ''

Oda Nobunaga was a Japanese ''daimyō'' and one of the leading figures of the Sengoku period. He is regarded as the first "Great Unifier" of Japan. Nobunaga was head of the very powerful Oda clan, and launched a war against other ''daimyō'' to unify ...

'' (1955-60) - 8 volumes * ''Young

'' (1965) * ''

Yamada Nagamasa was a Japanese adventurer who gained considerable influence in the Ayutthaya Kingdom at the beginning of the 17th century and became the governor of Nakhon Si Thammarat province, which is on the Malay Peninsula in present-day Southern Thailand. ...

'' (1956) * ''

Sakamoto Ryōma was a Japanese ''samurai'', a '' shishi'' and influential figure of the ''Bakumatsu'' and establishment of the Empire of Japan in the late Edo period. He was a low-ranking ''samurai'' from the Tosa Domain on Shikoku and became an active oppon ...

'' (1956) *

Mito Kōmon is a Japanese ''jidaigeki'' or period drama that was on prime-time television from 1969 to 2011, making it the longest-running ''jidaigeki'' in Japanese television history. The title character is the historic Tokugawa Mitsukuni, former vice-''sh ...

(1957) * ''

Minamoto no Yoritomo was the founder and the first shogun of the Kamakura shogunate of Japan, ruling from 1192 until 1199.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Minamoto no Yoriie" in . He was the husband of Hōjō Masako who acted as regent (''shikken'') after his ...

'' (1957-60) - 3 volumes * ''Shin

Taiheiki The (Chronicle of Great Peace) is a Japanese historical epic (see ''gunki monogatari'') written in the late 14th century and covers the period from 1319 to 1367. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Taiheiki''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', pp. 923� ...

'' (1957-62) - 8 volumes *

Nobusuke Kishi was a Japanese bureaucrat and politician who was Prime Minister of Japan from 1957 to 1960. Known for his exploitative rule of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo in Northeast China in the 1930s, Kishi was nicknamed the "Monster of the Shō ...

(1959) * ''Ikiteita Mitsuhide'' (1963) * ''

Yagyū clan The were a family of ''daimyōs'' (feudal lords) with lands just outside Nara, who became the heads of one of Japan's greatest schools of swordsmanship, Yagyū Shinkage-ryū. The Yagyū were also Kenjutsu teachers to the Tokugawa shōguns and des ...

'' (1964) * ''

Mōri Motonari was a prominent ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) in the western Chūgoku region of Japan during the Sengoku period of the 16th century. The Mōri clan claimed descent from Ōe no Hiromoto (大江広元), an adviser to Minamoto no Yoritomo. Motonari w ...

'' (1964) * ''Isehon Taikoki'' (1965) - 7 volumes * ''

Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania. It was geographically the largest theater of the war, including the vast ...

'' (1965-71) - 9 volumes *

Takasugi Shinsaku was a samurai from the Chōshū Domain of Japan who contributed significantly to the Meiji Restoration. He used several aliases to hide his activities from the Tokugawa shogunate. Early life Takasugi Shinsaku was born in the castle town Hag ...

(1966) *

Yoshida Shōin , commonly named , was one of Japan's most distinguished intellectuals in the late years of the Tokugawa shogunate. He devoted himself to nurturing many ''ishin shishi'' who in turn made major contributions to the Meiji Restoration. Early life ...

(1968) * ''

Emperor Meiji , also called or , was the 122nd emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession. Reigning from 13 February 1867 to his death, he was the first monarch of the Empire of Japan and presided over the Meiji era. He was the figur ...

'' (1968) - 3 volumes * ''

Date Masamune was a regional ruler of Japan's Azuchi–Momoyama period through early Edo period. Heir to a long line of powerful ''daimyō'' in the Tōhoku region, he went on to found the modern-day city of Sendai. An outstanding tactician, he was made all ...

'' (1970-73) * ''Haru no Sakamichi'' (1971) * ''

Tokugawa Yoshinobu Prince was the 15th and last ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan. He was part of a movement which aimed to reform the aging shogunate, but was ultimately unsuccessful. He resigned of his position as shogun in late 1867, while aiming ...

'' (1974) - 5 volumes * ''

Tokugawa Iemitsu Tokugawa Iemitsu (徳川家光, August 12, 1604 – June 8, 1651) was the third ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa dynasty. He was the eldest son of Tokugawa Hidetada with Oeyo, and the grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Lady Kasuga was his wet nurse, who a ...

'' (1974-76) - 3 volumes * Unprecedented Man -

Ryōichi Sasakawa was a Japanese suspected war criminal, businessman, far-right politician, and philanthropist. He was born in Minoh, Osaka. In the 1930s and during the Second World War he was active both in finance and in politics, actively supporting the Japane ...

(1978)

Adaptations

Television

* '' Haru no Sakamichi'' (1971) * ''

'' (1983) * '' Dokuganryū Masamune'' (1987)

Film

* ''Kurenaigao no Wakamusha'' (1955)Oda Nobunaga'', a Toei production * ''Fuunji Oda Nobunaga'' (1959), a Toei production * ''Tokugawa Ieyasu'' (1965), a Toei production

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yamaoka, Sohachi 1907 births 1978 deaths 20th-century Japanese novelists