FUKAZAWA SHICHIRO

Fukazawa Shichiro was a novelist and guitarist from Yamanashi Prefecture. His first book, Narayama bushi-ko (1956; tr. The Oak Mountain Song, 1957), was a popular bestseller and has been adapted into film twice since then. In 1960, he wrote a controversial satire that was published in Chuo Koron (Central Review) that led to a murder in the publisher’s household the following year. He suffered a heart attack in 1968 and spent the rest of his life fighting its complications. Fukazawa was awarded the Tanizaki Jun’ichiro Prize for Michinoku no ningyotachi (The Dolls of Michinoku, 1981). Three of his novels have been adapted into films.

See also BUNGEI EIGA.