was an award-winning Japanese writer. Internationally he is best known for his novels ''Shipwrecks'' and ''

On Parole ''On Parole'' is a studio recording released by British rock band Motörhead, which at the time consisted of Lemmy Kilmister on vocals and bass, Larry Wallis on guitar, and Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor on drums (replacing Lucas Fox). It was ...

''.

Life and work

Yoshimura was the president of the Japanese writers' union and a

PEN PEN may refer to: * (National Ecological Party), former name of the Brazilian political party Patriota (PATRI) * PEN International, a worldwide association of writers ** English PEN, the founding centre of PEN International ** PEN America, located ...

member. He published over 20 novels, of which ''On Parole'' and ''Shipwrecks'' are internationally known and have been translated into several languages. In 1984 he received the

Yomiuri Prize The is a literary award in Japan. The prize was founded in 1949 by the Yomiuri Shimbun Company to help form a "strong cultural nation". The winner is awarded two million Japanese yen and an inkstone. Award categories For the first two years, ...

for his novel ''Hagoku'' (, ''On Parole'') based on the true story of Yoshie Shiratori. After the

2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami Eleven or 11 may refer to: *11 (number) * One of the years 11 BC, AD 11, 1911, 2011 Literature * ''Eleven'' (novel), a 2006 novel by British author David Llewellyn *''Eleven'', a 1970 collection of short stories by Patricia Highsmith *''Eleven'' ...

, Yoshimura's nonfiction chronicle of three previous tsunamis on the coast of Sanriku, ''Sanriku Kaigan Otsunami'' received an influx of orders, requiring a reprint of 150,000 copies. Yoshimura's wife and author in her own right, Setsuko Tsumura donated the royalties from the book to the village of Tanohata, which was heavily impacted by the tsunami. Tanohata was a favorite place of Yoshimura's to visit and inspired him to begin research on the historical tsunamis of the area. Yoshimura was married to the writer Setsuko Tsumura.

Books (selection)

* 1966 ''Senkan Musashi'' () :* English edition: ''Battleship Musashi: The Making and Sinking of the Worlds Biggest Battleship'' (Kodansha USA, 1999) * 1967 ''Mizu no sōretsu'' () * 1970 ''Umi no kabe sanriku kaigan ōtsunami'' () * 1978 ''Tōi hi no sensō'' () :* English edition: ''One Man’s Justice'' (Canongate, 2004), * 1979 ''Pōtsumasu no hata'' () (on the 1905 Japan-Russia

Treaty of Portsmouth The Treaty of Portsmouth is a treaty that formally ended the 1904–1905 Russo-Japanese War. It was signed on September 5, 1905, after negotiations from August 6 to 30, at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine, United States. U.S. P ...

negotiation) :* French edition: ''Les Drapeaux de Portsmouth'' (Éditions Philippe Picquier, 1990) * 1982 ''Hasen'' () :* English edition: ''Shipwrecks'' (, ''Hasen'') (Harvest Books, 1996), * 1983 ''Hagoku'' () * 1988 ''Karishakuhō'' () :* English edition: ''

'' (Harvest Books, 2000), , loosely adapted into a movie as '' The Eel'' * 1989 ''Yami ni hirameku'' () * 1998 ''Namamugi jiken'' () * 1999 ''Amerika Hikozō'' () (on Joseph Heco) :* English edition: ''Storm Rider'' (Harcourt, 2004) * 2010 ''Shiroi michi'', (), Iwanami Shoten, 2010, (biographical essays, 208 pages)

Awards and honors

* 1966: Dazai Osamu Prize * 1973:

Kikuchi Kan Prize The honors achievement in all aspects of Japanese literary culture. It was named in honor of Kikuchi Kan. The prize is presented annually by the literary magazine '' Bungei Shunjū'' and the Society for the Promotion of Japanese Literature. Histo ...

* 1985: 36th

* 1997:

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 ...

member * 2006: Order of the Rising Sun, 3rd class

References

External links

Review of ''Shipwrecks'' at asianreviewofbooks.com
1927 births 2006 deaths 20th-century Japanese novelists Gakushuin University alumni Kaisei Academy alumni Japanese historical novelists Presidents of the Japan Writers’ Association Recipients of the Order of the Rising Sun, 3rd class Writers from Tokyo Yomiuri Prize winners {{Japan-writer-stub