Setsuko Shinoda

{{Infobox writer

| name = Setsuko Shinoda

| honorific_suffix =

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| native_name = 篠田節子

| birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1955}}

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| occupation = Writer

| language = Japanese

| nationality = Japanese

| education =

| alma_mater = Tokyo Gakugei University

| genre = {{plainlist|

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| notableworks = {{plainlist|

Gosaintan
Onna-tachi no jihādo
Sutābato Māteru
Indo kurisutaru

}}

| awards = {{plainlist|

Yamamoto Shūgorō Prize
Naoki Prize
MEXT Award for the Arts
Chuo Koron Literary Prize

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| website =

}}

{{nihongo|Setsuko Shinoda|篠田節子|Shinoda Setsuko|born 1955}} is a Japanese writer of the fiction genre. She has won the Shōsetsu Subaru Literary Prize for Newcomers, the Yamamoto Shūgorō Prize, the Naoki Prize, the Shibata Renzaburo Prize, a MEXT Award, and the Chuo Koron Literary Prize. Several of her works have been adapted for television.

Early life and education

Setsuko Shinoda was born in 1955 in Tokyo. As a child she read manga by Sanpei Shirato as well as books by foreign authors such as L. Frank Baum, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Mark Twain, and aspired to become a manga artist.{{cite web|url=http://www.webdoku.jp/rensai/sakka/michi134_shinoda/|lang=ja|title=作家の読書道　第134回：篠田節子さん|trans-title=Author's Reading Path #134: Setsuko Shinoda|website=Webdoku Magazine|last=瀧井|first=朝世|date=February 20, 2013|access-date=February 15, 2019}} She graduated from Tokyo Gakugei University.{{cite web|url=https://www1.e-hon.ne.jp/content/sp_0031_i2_201202.html|lang=ja|title=『銀婚式』の篠田節子さん|trans-title=Silver Wedding author Setsuko Shinoda|website=e-Hon|last=青木|first=千恵|date=February 1, 2012|access-date=February 15, 2019}} Before beginning her writing career she worked as a municipal employee in Hachiōji, including working at City Hall and the municipal library. She began taking writing lessons at the Asahi Cultural Center intending to move into public relations, but ended up taking novel writing classes and writing her first novel.

Writing career

In 1990 Shinoda's debut novel {{nihongo3|The Transformation of Silk|絹の変容|Kinu no hen'yō}}, a science fiction story about a biotech disaster that creates a monster and the social panic that follows, won the 3rd Shōsetsu Subaru Literary Prize for Newcomers.{{cite web|url=http://www.booksfromjapan.jp/authors/item/1305-setsuko-shinoda|title=Authors: Setsuko Shinoda|website=Books From Japan|access-date=February 15, 2019}} It was subsequently published in book form by Shueisha.

Seven years later, Shinoda won both the Yamamoto Shūgorō Prize and the Naoki Prize, but for different works. Shinoda's collection {{nihongo3||ゴサインタン: 神の座|Gosaintan: Kami no za}}, published in 1996 by Futabasha, won the 10th Yamamoto Shūgorō Prize. The title novella {{nihongo3||ゴサインタン|Gosaintan}} combines multiple genres in a story about a woman from Nepal whose arranged marriage to a Japanese farmer leads to confrontations with her husband's mother, her own elevation as an object of religious worship, her husband's subsequent financial ruin, and ultimately a new life in Nepal with more personal freedom but much worse conditions. Science fiction critic Mari Kotani has described Gosaintan as a story that "reexamines the true nature of romance" but also "openly exposes Japan's stance toward Nepal".{{cite journal|title=Space, Body, and Aliens in Japanese Women's Science Fiction|first=Mari|last=Kotani|translator-first=Miki|translator-last=Nakamura|journal=Science Fiction Studies|volume=29|number=3|date=2002|pages=397-417|jstor=4241107}}

A few months later, Shinoda's book {{nihongo3|Women's Jihad|女たちのジハード|Onnatachi no jihādo}}, published by Shueisha, won the 117th Naoki Prize. Onnatachi no jihādo follows the individual stories of five women employees experiencing harassment at an insurance company, focusing on the difficulties they have in a male-dominated society. In 1998 the book was adapted for television by NHK as a 2-episode special titled {{nihongo3|Women's Holy War|女たちの聖戦|Onnatachi no seisen}}.{{cite book|title=Femininity, Self-harm and Eating Disorders in Japan: Navigating contradiction in narrative and visual culture|first=Gitte Marianne|last=Hansen|publisher=Routledge|date=2015|isbn=9781317444381}}

After her Naoki Prize success, several more of Shinoda's works were adapted for television. In 1998 Shinoda's story {{nihongo3|Harmonia|ハルモニア|Harumonia}}, a horror story about a cellist whose attempts to help a girl with a brain disease communicate through music lead to her falling in love with him and using previously unknown paranormal powers to hurt other people in his life, was published as a book and adapted by Nippon TV into a television drama starring Koichi Domoto, Miki Nakatani, and Akiko Yada.{{cite book|title=The Dorama Encyclopedia: A Guide to Japanese TV Drama Since 1953|first1=Jonathan|last1=Clements|first2=Motoko|last2=Tamamuro|publisher=Stone Bridge Press|date=2003|pages=111-112|isbn=9781880656815}} Her 2000 novel {{nihongo3|One Hundred Years of Love|百年の恋|Hyakunen no koi}}, about the problems experienced by a married couple with vastly different personal incomes, was adapted into a 2003 NHK drama.{{cite web|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190222051329/http://www2.nhk.or.jp/archives/tv60bin/detail/index.cgi?das_id=D0009040383_00000|archive-date=February 22, 2019|url=http://www2.nhk.or.jp/archives/tv60bin/detail/index.cgi?das_id=D0009040383_00000|url-status=live|lang=ja|title=２３時連続ドラマ　百年の恋|website=NHK|access-date=February 22, 2019}} Her 1995 horror novel {{nihongo3|Summer Calamity|夏の災厄|Natsu no saiyaku}}, about a pandemic that strikes a town outside Tokyo, was adapted into a 2006 Nippon TV special program.{{cite web|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190222051838/http://www.ntv.co.jp/d-complex/contents/20060627_m.html|archive-date=February 22, 2019|url=http://www.ntv.co.jp/d-complex/contents/20060627_m.html|url-status=live|title=「ウィルスパニック2006夏街は感染した」|website=Nippon TV|access-date=February 22, 2019}}

Shinoda's 2-volume work {{nihongo3|False Rites|仮想儀礼|Kasō girei}} was published by Shinchosha in 2008. Kasō girei tells the story of two men who start to write a role-playing game, decide instead to use the game as the basis for a new religious movement, gain enough adherents to achieve financial success, then find themselves displaced from the religious organization by women followers.{{cite web|url=http://www.booksfromjapan.jp/publications/item/1304-false-rites|title=False Rites|website=Books from Japan|access-date=February 21, 2019}} In 2009 Kasō girei received the 22nd Shibata Renzaburo Prize. Two years later Shinoda received the 61st MEXT Award in the Literature category from the Japanese government's Agency for Cultural Affairs for her collection {{nihongo3|Stabat Mater|スターバト・マーテル|Sutābato Māteru}}.

In 2014 Kadokawa published Shinoda's novel {{nihongo3|India Crystal|インドクリスタル|Indo kurisutaru}}, the story of a Japanese businessman whose efforts to import special crystals needed for electronics manufacturing lead him to a small village in India, where he becomes involved with a local prostitute with exceptional cognitive powers, discovers a scheme to control uranium deposits, and almost dies in an anti-government uprising.{{cite web|url=http://www.booksfromjapan.jp/publications/item/3596-india-crystal|title=India Crystal|website=Books from Japan|access-date=February 21, 2019}} Shinoda visited small Indian villages for details of setting and character, but based the fictitious Indian crystal trade in the novel on Japan's trade with Brazil and Australia.{{cite news|url=https://toyokeizai.net/articles/-/60560|lang=ja|title=インドでは､｢日本の良識｣は通じない|last=塚田|first=紀史|work=Weekly Toyo Keizai|date=February 15, 2015|access-date=February 21, 2019}} The book won the 10th Chuo Koron Literary Prize.{{cite news|url=https://www.sankei.com/life/news/150826/lif1508260033-n1.html|lang=ja|title=中央公論文芸賞に篠田節子さん、中島京子さん|trans-title=Chuo Koron Literary Prize goes to Setsuko Shinoda and Kyoko Nakajima|work=Sankei Shimbun|date=August 26, 2015|access-date=February 17, 2019}}

An English version of her story "The Long-rumored Food Crisis", which The Japan Times called "a chilling account of moral breakdown after the Big One levels Tokyo", was published in the 2015 collection Hanzai Japan.{{cite news|url=https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2015/12/05/books/book-reviews/hanzai-japan/|title=Hanzai Japan|first=Tim|last=Hornyak|work=The Japan Times|date=December 5, 2015|access-date=February 23, 2019}}

Recognition and honors

1990: 3rd Shōsetsu Subaru Literary Prize for Newcomers{{cite web|url=https://www.shueisha.co.jp/shuppan4syo/subaru_new/index.html|lang=ja|title=小説すばる新人賞受賞作リスト|trans-title=List of Shōsetsu Subaru Literary Prize for Newcomers Winning Works|website=Shueisha|access-date=February 21, 2019}}
1997: 10th Yamamoto Shūgorō Prize{{cite web|url=https://www.shinchosha.co.jp/prizes/yamamotosho/archive.html|lang=ja|title=山本周五郎賞過去の受賞作品|trans-title=Yamamoto Shūgorō Prize Past Winning Works|website=Shinchosha|access-date=February 15, 2019}}
1997: 117th Naoki Prize (1997上){{cite web|url=http://www.bunshun.co.jp/shinkoukai/award/naoki/list.html|language=japanese|title=直木賞受賞者一覧|website=日本文学振興会|trans-title=List of Naoki Prize Winners|access-date=February 15, 2019}}
2009: 22nd Shibata Renzaburo Prize{{cite web|url=https://www.shueisha.co.jp/shuppan4syo/sibaren/index.html|lang=ja|title=柴田錬三郎賞受賞作リスト|trans-title=List of Shibata Renzaburo Prize Winning Works|work=Shueisha|access-date=February 21, 2019}}
2011: 61st MEXT Award in Literature{{cite web|url=http://www.bunka.go.jp/seisaku/geijutsubunka/jutenshien/geijutsuka/sensho/pdf/rekidai_jushosha.pdf|lang=ja|title=芸術選奨歴代受賞者一覧（昭和25年度～）|work=Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan|access-date=February 21, 2019}}
2015: 10th Chuo Koron Literary Prize{{cite web|url=https://www.chuko.co.jp/aword/chukou/|lang=ja|title=中央公論文芸賞受賞作品一覧|trans-title=Chuo Koron Literary Prize List of Winning Works|website=Chuokoron-Shinsha|access-date=February 17, 2019}}

2020: {{nihongo|Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette|勲四等旭日小綬章|}}{{Cite web |date=April 28, 2020 |url=https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXMZO58555300X20C20A4CR8000/ |title=

春の褒章660人・22団体　落語家の春風亭小朝さんら |publisher=Cabinet Office (Japan) |format= |accessdate=May 1, 2020 |language=Japanese |trans-title=Decorations in spring: 660 people and 22 organizations}}

Television adaptations

1998: {{nihongo3|Women's Holy War|女達の聖戦|Onnatachi no seisen}}, NHK adaptation of Onnatachi no jihādo
1998: {{nihongo3|Harmonia|ハルモニア|Harumonia}}, Nippon TV
2003: {{nihongo3|One Hundred Years of Love|百年の恋|Hyakunen no koi}}, NHK
2006: {{nihongo3|Virus Panic Summer 2006: The Streets are Infected|ウィルスパニック2006夏〜街は感染した〜|Uirusu panikku 2006 natsu: machi wa kansen shita}}, Nippon TV adaptation of Natsu no saiyaku

Bibliography

=Selected works in Japanese=

{{nihongo3|The Transformation of Silk|絹の変容|Kinu no hen'yō}}, Shueisha, 1991, {{isbn|9784087727746}}
{{nihongo3|Summer Calamity|夏の災厄|Natsu no saiyaku}}, Mainichi Shimbun, 1995, {{isbn|9784620105222}}
{{nihongo3||ゴサインタン: 神の座|Gosaintan: Kami no za}}, Futabasha, 1996, {{isbn|9784575232660}}
{{nihongo3|Women's Jihad|女たちのジハード|Onnatachi no jihādo}}, Shueisha, 1997, {{isbn|9784087742398}}
{{nihongo3|Harmonia|ハルモニア|Harumonia}}, Magajinhausu, 1998, {{isbn|9784838708383}}
{{nihongo3|One Hundred Years of Love|百年の恋|Hyakunen no koi}}, 2000, Asahi Shimbun, {{isbn|9784022575579}}
{{nihongo3|False Rites|仮想儀礼|Kasō girei}}, Shinchosha, 2008, {{isbn|9784103133612}} (vol. 1), {{isbn|9784103133629}} (vol. 2)
{{nihongo3|Stabat Mater|スターバト・マーテル|Sutābato Māteru}}, Kobunsha, 2010, {{isbn|9784334926977}}
{{nihongo3|India Crystal|インドクリスタル|Indo kurisutaru}}, Kadokawa, 2014, {{isbn|9784041013526}}

=Selected work in English translation=

"The Long-rumored Food Crisis", translated by Jim Hubbert, Hanzai Japan, 2015{{cite book|title=Hanzai Japan: Fantastical, Futuristic Stories of Crime From and About Japan|publisher=Haikasoru|editor1-first=Nick|editor1-last=Mamatas|editor2-first=Masumi|editor2-last=Washington|chapter=The Long-rumored Food Crisis|first=Setsuko|last=Shinoda|translator-first=Jim|translator-last=Hubbert|date=2015|isbn=9781421580258}}