, better known by the

pen-name A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen na ...

of Taku Miki, was a Japanese poet and novelist during the Showa and Heisei period.

Biography

Taku Miki was born as Tomita Miki in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

, and grew up in

Manchukuo Manchukuo, officially the State of Manchuria prior to 1934 and the Empire of (Great) Manchuria after 1934, was a puppet state of the Empire of Japan in Northeast China, Manchuria from 1932 until 1945. It was founded as a republic in 1932 afte ...

. He returned to Japan in 1946 and graduated in 1959 from

Waseda University , abbreviated as , is a private university, private research university in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Founded in 1882 as the ''Tōkyō Senmon Gakkō'' by Ōkuma Shigenobu, the school was formally renamed Waseda University in 1902. The university has numerou ...

where he majored in

Russian literature Russian literature refers to the literature of Russia and its émigrés and to Russian language, Russian-language literature. The roots of Russian literature can be traced to the Middle Ages, when epics and chronicles in Old East Slavic were c ...

. During college he wrote poems and reviews for

literary magazine A literary magazine is a periodical devoted to literature in a broad sense. Literary magazines usually publish short stories, poetry, and essays, along with literary criticism, book reviews, biographical profiles of authors, interviews and letter ...

''Bungaku soshiki'', and after graduation formed part of the poetry circle around ''Han'' ("Inundation"). Miki's principal works include the poetry collection ''Tokyo gozen sanji'' (3 AM in Tokyo, 1966), the fairy tale ''Horobita kuni no tabi'' ("Travels in a Ruined Country", 1969); and ''Hogeki no ato de'' ("After the Bombardment", 1973), which contains the

Akutagawa Prize The is a Japanese literary award presented biannually. Because of its prestige and the considerable attention the winner receives from the media, it is, along with the Naoki Prize, one of Japan's most sought after literary prizes. History The ...

-winning story ''Hiwa'' ("Finch"). His novels include ''Furueru shita'' ("With Quivering Tongue", 1974), ''Karera ga hashirinuketa hi'' ("The Day They Went the Distance", 1978), ''Gyosha no aki'' ("The Charioteer in Autumn", 1985), and ''Koguma-za no otoko'' ("The Man from the Little Dipper", 1989). He has also written

literary criticism Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...

(''Kotoba no suru shigoto'', "The Work Words Do", 1975), essays (''Tokyo bishiteki hokō'', "Microscopic Strolls Through Tokyo", 1975), and a work of juvenile fiction, (''Potapota'', "Drip, Drip", 1984). The poem "Genealogy," translated from the Japanese by Whang Insu, appears in the text ''One World of Literature'' (1993) by Shirley Geok-lin Lim and Norman A. Spencer. In 2007, he was selected as a member of the

Japan Art Academy is the highest-ranking official artistic organization in Japan. It is established as an extraordinary organ of the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs (文化庁, Bunkacho) in the thirty-first article of the law establishing the Ministry of Ed ...

. Miki died on November 18, 2023, at the age of 88.「鶸」で芥川賞受賞の三木卓さんが死去、８８歳…日本芸術院会員

Major prizes

* 1967 H-Shi Prize, for ''Tokyo gozen sanji'' * 1970 Takami Jun Prize, for ''Waga kidi rando'' (Our kiddy land) * 1973

, for ''Hiwa'' (Finch) * 1984 Noma Jido Bungei Prize (Noma Juvenile Literary Prize), for ''Potapota'' (Drip drip) * 1986 Hirabayashi Taiko Prize, for ''Gyosha no aki'' (Autumn of the driver) * 1997

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 ''Roji'' * Geijutsu Sensho Monbu Daijin Prize

References

External links

J'Lit — Authors : Taku Miki — Books from Japan
1935 births 2023 deaths Writers from Tokyo 20th-century Japanese novelists 21st-century Japanese novelists Japanese essayists Japanese literary critics Waseda University alumni Akutagawa Prize winners 20th-century Japanese poets 20th-century essayists 21st-century essayists {{Japan-writer-stub