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 ...

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and

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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, 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 most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

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 ...

in 1958, and again 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 Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film festival in the world. Held in Cannes, France, it previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around ...

Palme d'Or The (; ) is the highest prize awarded to the director of the Best Feature Film of the Official Competition at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festiv ...

Shimanaka Incident

In the fall of 1960, the mainstream monthly magazine '' Chūō Kōron'' 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 The (IHA) is an agency of the government of Japan in charge of state matters concerning the Imperial House of Japan, Imperial Family, and the keeping of the Privy Seal of Japan, Privy Seal and State Seal of Japan. From around the 8th century ...

and among Japanese right-wing ultranationalists. On February 1, 1961, in response to the story, Kazutaka Komori, a seventeen-year-old rightist, broke into the home of Hōji Shimanaka, ''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 Japanese satirists Japanese satirical novelists Japanese short story writers Writers from Yamanashi Prefecture