The 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. Because of its prestige and the considerable attention the winner receives from the media, it is, along with the

Naoki Prize The Naoki Prize, officially , is a Japanese literary award presented biannually. It was created in 1935 by Kikuchi Kan, then editor of the ''Bungeishunjū'' magazine, and named in memory of novelist Naoki Sanjugo. Sponsored by the Society for t ...

, one of Japan's most sought after literary prizes.

History

The Akutagawa Prize was established in 1935 by Kan Kikuchi, then-editor of ''Bungeishunjū'' magazine, in memory of author Ryūnosuke Akutagawa. It is currently sponsored by the Society for the Promotion of Japanese Literature, and is awarded in January and July to the best serious

literary Literature is any collection of 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 includ ...

story published in a newspaper or magazine by a new or rising author. The winner receives a pocket watch and a cash award of 1 million yen. The judges usually include contemporary writers, literary critics, and former winners of the prize. Occasionally, when consensus cannot be reached between judges over disputes about the winning story or the quality of work for that half year, no prize is awarded. From 1945 through 1948 no prizes were awarded due to postwar instability. The prize has frequently been split between two authors. On January 15, 2004, the awarding of the 130th Akutagawa Prize made significant news when two women became the award's youngest winners. The prize went to both

Risa Wataya is a List of Japanese women writers, female Japanese novelist from Kyoto. Her short novel ''Keritai senaka'' won the Akutagawa Prize and has sold more than a million copies. Wataya has also won the Bungei Prize and the Kenzaburo Oe Prize. Her wor ...

, 19, for her novel and to Hitomi Kanehara, 20, for her debut novel . Previously the youngest Akutagawa winners were all males over 23 years old, among them the former Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara and novelist Kenzaburō Ōe. In 2013 Natsuko Kuroda won the 148th Akutagawa Prize at age 75, making her the oldest recipient in the history of the prize.

Controversies

In 1972, Akutagawa winner was found to have committed plagiarism. In 2018, a similar controversy occurred when the candidate novel by Yuko Hojo was found to have reused text from its nonfiction source material without attribution, but the Society for the Promotion of Japanese Literature did not remove the book from the candidate list.

Winners

Bungeishunjū maintains an official archive of current and past winners on behalf of the Society for the Promotion of Japanese Literature.

Current members of the selection committee and year appointed

Amy Yamada born February 8, 1959, is a popular but controversial contemporary Japanese writer who is most famous for her stories that address issues of sexuality, racism, and interracial love and marriage. Her debut and subsequent popular success in the ...

, 2003 *

Hiromi Kawakami is a Japanese writer known for her off-beat fiction, poetry, and literary criticism. She has won numerous Japanese literary awards, including the Akutagawa Prize, the Tanizaki Prize, the Yomiuri Prize, and the Izumi Kyōka Prize for Literature. ...

, 2007 * Yōko Ogawa, 2007 *

Masahiko Shimada is a Japanese writer. He has won the Noma Literary New Face Prize, the Izumi Kyōka Prize for Literature, the Itō Sei Literature Prize, and the Mainichi Publishing Culture Award. His work has been translated into English. Biography While stud ...

, 2010 * Toshiyuki Horie, 2012 * Hikaru Okuizumi, 2012 * Shuichi Yoshida, 2016 * Hisaki Matsuura, 2019 *

Keiichiro Hirano is a Japanese novelist. Hirano was born in Gamagori, Aichi prefecture, Japan. He published his first novel (''Nisshoku'', ) in 1998 and won the Akutagawa Prize the next year as one of the youngest winners ever (at 23 years of age). He graduate ...

, 2020

References

{{Authority control 1935 establishments in Japan Awards established in 1935 Japanese-language literary awards Japanese literary awards Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

History

Controversies

Winners

Current members of the selection committee and year appointed

See also

References