Kaoru Kitamura
{{Short description|Japanese writer (born 1949)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2014}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Kaoru Kitamura
| image =
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| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1949|12|28|mf=y}}
| birth_place = Sugito, Saitama, Japan
| death_date =
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| occupation = Writer
| nationality = Japanese
| period =
| genre = Mystery
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{{Nihongo|Kaoru Kitamura|北村 薫|Kitamura Kaoru}} (born December 28, 1949) is the pen name of {{Nihongo|Kazuo Miyamoto|宮本 和男|Miyamoto Kazuo}}, a popular contemporary Japanese writer, mainly of short stories.
Biography
Kitamura was born in the town of Sugito in Saitama Prefecture. He studied literature at Waseda University in Tokyo, and was a member of the Waseda Mystery Club while a student there. However, after graduating from Waseda in 1972, he returned to Saitama to become a language teacher at Kasukabe High School, his alma mater. He began his fiction writing career only after teaching for almost twenty years, and stopped teaching in 1993 to devote himself completely to writing once established as an author.
He made his writing debut using a pen name. Initially, because the unnamed first-person protagonist of his early works was a female college student, and the name Kaoru is gender ambiguous, it was widely speculated that Kitamura was female. This speculation persisted until he revealed his identity upon accepting the Mystery Writers of Japan Award in 1991.
Works
Kitamura is known as a writer of mysteries, and rather than the detective and crime stories of traditional mystery, his work mainly focuses on the logical resolution of more "ordinary" puzzles and questions encountered in everyday life. He is considered a pioneer of this style of mystery in Japan, called {{Nihongo|"everyday mystery"|日常の謎|nichijō no nazo}}, which has since been taken up by many other writers.
He made his literary debut in 1989, with the publication of {{Nihongo3|"Flying Horse"|空飛ぶ馬|Soratobu Uma}}, and has been writing prolifically since then. He won the 44th Mystery Writers of Japan Award in 1991 for {{Nihongo3|"Night Locusts"|夜の蝉|Yoru no Semi}}, the 6th Honkaku Mystery Award in 2006 for {{Nihongo3|"Japanese Coin Mystery"|ニッポン硬貨の謎|Nippon Kōka no Nazo}}, and the 2006 Baka-Misu Award for the same work. In 2009, after repeated previous nominations, he won the prestigious Naoki Prize (the 141st) for {{Nihongo3|"Herons and Snow"|鷺と雪|Sagi to Yuki}}. His works have been adapted for film, television, and manga.
Selected bibliography
| class="wikitable" style="font-size: 95%;"
! Year ! Japanese Title ! Series |
| 1989
| {{Nihongo3|"Flying Horse"|空飛ぶ馬|Soratobu Uma}} | {{Nihongo3|2=円紫さん|3=Enshi-san}} series |
| 1990
| {{Nihongo3|"Night Locusts"|夜の蝉|Yoru no Semi}} | Enshi-san series |
| 1991
| {{Nihongo3|"Autumn Flowers"|秋の花|Aki no Hana}} | Enshi-san series |
| 1992
| {{Nihongo3|"Princess in Rokunomiya"|六の宮の姫君|Roku no Miya no Himegimi}} | Enshi-san series |
| 1995
| {{Nihongo|Skip|スキップ|Sukippu}} | {{Nihongo|"Time and Man"|時と人|Toki to Hito}} trilogy |
| 1997
| {{Nihongo|Turn|ターン|Tān}} | "Time and Man" trilogy |
| 1998
| {{Nihongo3|"Morning Fog"|朝霧|Asagiri}} | Enshi-san series |
| 2001
| {{Nihongo|Reset|リセット|Risetto}} | "Time and Man" trilogy |
| 2003
| {{Nihongo3|"City Lights"|街の灯|Michi no Hi}} | {{Nihongo|Becky-san|ベッキーさん|Bekkī-san}} series |
| 2005
| {{Nihongo3|"Glass Heaven"|玻璃の天|Hari no Ten}} | Becky-san series |
| 2005
| {{Nihongo3|"Japanese Coin Mystery"|ニッポン硬貨の謎|Nippon Kōka no Nazo}} |
| 2009
| {{Nihongo3|"Herons and Snow"|鷺と雪|Sagi to Yuki}} | Becky-san series |
See also
{{Portal|Novels|Japan}}
References
- {{cite book | author=Emmerich, Michael | title=Read Real Japanese Fiction | location=Tokyo | publisher=Kodansha International | year=2008 | isbn=978-4-7700-3058-0}} (Includes a brief English biography of Kitamura)
- {{cite web | title=北村薫 | publisher=Aga-search.com | url=http://www.aga-search.com/jp/16kitamurakaoru.html | accessdate=July 30, 2010}}
- {{cite web | title=北村薫とは – はてなキーワード | publisher=Hatena | url=http://d.hatena.ne.jp/keyword/%CB%CC%C2%BC%B7%B0 | accessdate=July 30, 2010}}{{User-generated source|date=January 2024}}
External links
- [http://www.booksfromjapan.jp/authors/item/1081-kaoru-kitamura J'Lit | Authors : Kaoru Kitamura | Books from Japan] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150917233328/http://www.booksfromjapan.jp/authors/item/1081-kaoru-kitamura |date=September 17, 2015 }}{{in lang|en}}
- [http://japansense.blogspot.com/2010/03/yoru-no-semi-night-locust-by-kaoru.html 夜の蝉 (yoru no semi): Night Locust by Kaoru Kitamura]
- [http://www.lovehkfilm.com/panasia/turn.htm Turn (JAPAN 2001)] English language review of film adaption of Turn
- http://www.kitamura-tei.com Japanese language fan site
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kitamura, Kaoru}}
Category:Japanese mystery writers
Category:Mystery Writers of Japan Award winners
Category:Honkaku Mystery Award winners
Category:Japanese male short story writers