Kaoru Takamura

Kaoru Takamura (髙村 薫, Takamura Kaoru, born 1953) is a Japanese writer from Osaka. She has won numerous Japanese literary awards, including the Mystery Writers of Japan Award, the Japan Adventure Fiction Association Prize, the Naoki Prize, the Yomiuri Prize, and the Noma Literary Prize, and her work has been adapted for film and television.

Kaoru Takamura
Native name
髙村 薫
Born1953 (age 66–67)
Osaka, Japan
OccupationWriter
LanguageJapanese
NationalityJapanese
Alma materInternational Christian University
Genre
Notable works
  • Ōgon o daite tobe
  • Riviera o ute
  • Māksu no yama
  • Taiyō o hiku uma
  • Tsuchi no ki
Notable awards

Early life and education

Takamura was born in Osaka in 1953. After graduating from International Christian University, she worked for a trading company, and did not start writing until her 30s.[1][2]

Career

Takamura's first novel, Ōgon o daite tobe (黄金を抱いて翔ベ, Grab the Money and Run), was published in 1990 and won the Japan Mystery and Suspense Grand Prize.[2] Two years later her novel Riviera o ute (リヴィエラを撃て, Shoot Riviera), a thriller about an Irish man mysteriously murdered in Tokyo as part of an apparent international espionage plot, was published, winning both the Mystery Writers of Japan Award and the Japan Adventure Fiction Association Prize.[1][2] Ōgon o daite tobe was later adapted into the 2012 Kazuyuki Izutsu film of the same name, starring Satoshi Tsumabuki and Tadanobu Asano.[3]

In 1993 Takamura's mystery novel Mākusu no yama (マークスの山, Marks' Mountain), about a boy who survives his parents' suicide and grows up to be a psychopathic serial killer, won the Naoki Prize as well as Takamura's second consecutive Japan Adventure Fiction Association Prize.[1][4] The book sold more than a million copies.[5] It was later adapted into a 1995 Yoichi Sai film and a 2010 Wowow television drama.[6] By the mid-1990s Takamura was seen as the "Queen of Mysteries", but in 1997, after completing a fictionalized account of the Glico Morinaga case titled Redi joka (レディ・ジョーカー, Lady Joker), she changed the focus of her writing from mystery novels to literary fiction.[7] Lady Joker was later adapted into the 2004 Hideyuki Hirayama film Lady Joker and a 2013 Wowow television drama.[8]

Takamura subsequently published a trilogy of novels about the lives of four generations of a conservative political family, starting with Haruko jōka (晴子情歌, Haruko's Love Song) in 2002, continuing with Shin Ria-ō (新リア王, A New King Lear) in 2005, and concluding with Taiyō o hiku uma (太陽を曳く馬, The Horse that Pulls the Sun) in 2009. Shin Ria-ō won the Shinran Prize, and Taiyō o hiku uma won the Yomiuri Prize.[9] In 2016 she published the novel Tsuchi no ki (土の記, Working the Earth), about an elderly farmer coping with the death of his wife, alienation from his daughter, and disruption caused by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.[10] Tsuchi no ki won the 70th Noma Literary Prize,[11] the 44th Jirō Osagari Prize,[12] and a Mainichi Arts Award.[13]

Writing style

Takamura's fiction focuses especially on the psychological aspects of her characters.[1] She also addresses larger contemporary social issues, both in her novels and in the nonfiction essays and commentary that she writes for newspapers and magazines.[7]

Recognition

Film and other adaptations

Film

Television

Works
  • Ōgon o daite tobe (黄金を抱いて翔ベ, Grab the Money and Run), 1990, Shinchosha, ISBN 9784103784012
  • Riviera o ute (リヴィエラを撃て, Shoot Riviera), 1992, Shinchosha, ISBN 9784106027284
  • Mākusu no yama (マークスの山, Marks' Mountain), 1993, Hayakawa Shobõ, ISBN 9784152035530
  • Redi joka (レディ・ジョーカー, Lady Joker), 1997, Mainichi Shimbun, ISBN 9784620105796
  • Haruko jōka (晴子情歌, Haruko's Love Song), 2002, Shinchosha, ISBN 9784103784029
  • Shin Ria-ō (新リア王, A New King Lear), 2005, Shinchosha, ISBN 9784103784043
  • Taiyō o hiku uma (太陽を曳く馬, The Horse that Pulls the Sun), 2009, Shinchosha, ISBN 9784103784067
  • Tsuchi no ki (土の記, Working the Earth), 2016, Shinchosha, ISBN 9784103784098
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References
  1. Schierbeck, Sachiko; Edelstein, Marlene (1994). Japanese Women Novelists in the 20th Century: 104 Biographies, 1900-1993. Museum Tusculanum. pp. 264–266. ISBN 9788772892689.
  2. "Authors: Kaoru Takamura". Books from Japan. Archived from the original on December 15, 2018. Retrieved December 13, 2018.
  3. "映画『黄金を抱いて翔べ』妻夫木聡＆浅野忠信　単独インタビュー". Cinema Today (in Japanese). October 29, 2012. Archived from the original on December 15, 2018. Retrieved December 15, 2018.
  4. "Jafa: 第9回（1990年）～ 第18回（1999年）大賞作品" [JAFA Grand Prize Winners: 1990-1999]. Japan Adventure Fiction Association (in Japanese). Archived from the original on June 25, 2016. Retrieved December 13, 2018.
  5. "上川隆也主演ドラマ「マークスの山」マークス役は高良健吾に決定！恋人役に戸田菜穂". Cinema Today (in Japanese). August 25, 2010. Archived from the original on December 15, 2018. Retrieved December 15, 2018.
  6. "高村薫『マークスの山』が上川隆也主演で初ドラマ化 23日間かけキャスト発表". Oricon News (in Japanese). August 4, 2010. Archived from the original on December 15, 2018. Retrieved December 15, 2018.
  7. Seaman, Amanda C. (2004). Bodies of Evidence: Women, Society, and Detective Fiction in 1990s Japan. University of Hawaii Press. pp. 14–16. ISBN 9780824828066.
  8. "上川隆也×柴田恭兵で「レディ・ジョーカー」連続ドラマ化！". Cinema Today (in Japanese). October 12, 2012. Archived from the original on December 15, 2018. Retrieved December 15, 2018.
  9. "The Horse of the Sun: Synopsis". Books from Japan. Archived from the original on December 15, 2018. Retrieved December 15, 2018.
  10. "Working the Earth: Synopsis". Books from Japan. Archived from the original on December 15, 2018. Retrieved December 15, 2018.
  11. "野間文芸賞　震災経て生まれた「土の記」の高村薫さんら会見". Sankei Shimbun (in Japanese). December 4, 2017. Archived from the original on August 2, 2018. Retrieved December 13, 2018.
  12. "第４４回大佛次郎賞　『土の記』――高村薫氏". Asahi Shimbun (in Japanese). December 17, 2017. Archived from the original on December 15, 2018. Retrieved December 15, 2018.
  13. "第５９回毎日芸術賞: 贈呈式　受賞７人、喜びの声". Mainichi Shimbun (in Japanese). January 26, 2018. Retrieved December 15, 2018.
  14. "推理作家協会賞作品" [Mystery Writers of Japan: Prose Writers Award Winning Works]. Mystery Writers of Japan (in Japanese). Archived from the original on January 28, 2018. Retrieved December 15, 2018.
  15. "直木賞受賞者一覧" [List of Naoki Prize Winners]. Bungeishunjū (in Japanese). 日本文学振興会. Archived from the original on November 7, 2018. Retrieved December 13, 2018.
  16. "親鸞賞" [Shinran Prize]. Honganji Foundation (in Japanese). Archived from the original on November 18, 2018. Retrieved December 15, 2018.
  17. "読売文学賞　第６１回（２００９年度）～ 第６５回（２０１３年度）" [Yomiuri Prize for Literature: 2009-2013] (in Japanese). Yomiuri Shimbun. Archived from the original on June 22, 2018. Retrieved December 13, 2018.
  18. "野間賞過去受賞作" [Noma Literary Prize Past Winning Works]. Kodansha (in Japanese). Archived from the original on December 15, 2018. Retrieved December 15, 2018.
  19. "マークスの山". Wowow (in Japanese). Archived from the original on December 15, 2018. Retrieved December 15, 2018.
  20. "連続ドラマW「レディ・ジョーカー」". Wowow (in Japanese). Archived from the original on December 15, 2018. Retrieved December 15, 2018.
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