is a Japanese writer of mystery novels and historical fiction as well as a historical researcher. He was formerly a news reporter for TBS and since April 2012 has worked as a visiting professor at

Shuchiin University is a private university in Fushimi-ku, Kyoto, Kyoto, Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and ext ...

Career and writings

Motohiko Izawa graduated from Chitose Tokyo Metropolitan High School, now Roka Tokyo Metropolitan High School, and from the faculty of law at

Waseda University Waseda University (Japanese: ), abbreviated as or , is a private university, private research university in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Founded in 1882 as the Tōkyō Professional School by Ōkuma Shigenobu, the fifth Prime Minister of Japan, prime ministe ...

. While he was in university his story ''Tōsaku no Hōfuku'' ("Retaliation for Perversion") was a candidate for the

Edogawa Rampo Prize The , named after Edogawa Rampo, is a Japanese literary award which has been presented every year by the Mystery Writers of Japan since 1955. Though its name is similar to the Edgar Allan Poe Awards, which has been presented by Mystery Writers of ...

. After graduation he joined TBS as a news reporter. In 1980, at the time he was working at the politics section of the news bureau, his novel ''Sarumaru Genshi-ko'' ("Illusionary Travel Around Sarumaru") won the 26th Edogawa Rampo Prize. ''Sarumaru Genshi-ko'' is a both detective fiction and a historical novel in which the protagonist mentally travels in time under the influence of medications and, in a science-fiction style twist, amalgamates with the mind of

Shinobu Orikuchi , also known as , was a Japanese people, Japanese ethnologist, linguistics, linguist, folklorist, novelist, and poet. As a disciple of Kunio Yanagita, he established an original academic field named , which is a mixture of Japanese folklore, Jap ...

and solves crimes in Orikuchi's time as well as unravelling the mystery of the

Heian-era The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kammu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means in Japanese. It is ...

iroha The is a Japanese poem. Originally the poem was attributed to Kūkai, the founder of Shingon Buddhism, but more modern research has found the date of composition to be later in the Heian period (794–1179). The first record of its existence ...

and the relationship of the poets Sarumaru no Taifu and

Kakinomoto no Hitomaro was a Japanese '' waka'' poet and aristocrat of the late Asuka period. He was the most prominent of the poets included in the ''Man'yōshū'', the oldest ''waka'' anthology, but apart from what can be gleaned from hints in the ''Man'yōshū'', ...

. In 1985 Izawa left TBS to become a full-time writer. Most of Izawa's novels are on the plane of what he calls historical mysteries, in which he ties modern-day murders into his detective fiction while taking the mysteries of history as his themes. In addition, he also works on pure historical fiction, and he develops his own unique theories on history, particularly since 1992 in the successive instalments of his popular series of non-fiction history books, ''Gyakusetsu no Nihonshi'' ("Paradoxical Japanese History"). In his early days he also wrote

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

and the novelization of the

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles. The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi ...

game

Dragon Buster is an action role-playing platform video game developed and published by Namco for arcades in 1984. It runs on Namco Pac-Land hardware, modified to support vertical scrolling. In Japan, the game was ported to the Family Computer (Famicom), ...

. Recently he has turned his attention outside of Japanese history and has released books such as a series of “intensive courses” on the religions of Buddhism, Shintoism, Confucianism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Views on Japanese history

Izawa has a strong command of diverse historical materials and treats the society and history of Japan from an original point of view. He sees as the animating undercurrents of Japan the unconscious faith of the Japanese people in

kotodama refers to the Japanese belief that mystical powers dwell in words and names. English translations include "soul of language", "spirit of language", "power of language", "power word", " magic word", and "sacred sound". The notion of ''kotodama'' ...

, onryo,

kegare is the Japanese term for a state of pollution and defilement, important particularly in Shinto as a religious term. Typical causes of ''kegare'' are the contact with any form of death, childbirth (for both parents), disease, and menstruation, an ...

, and wa, or harmony. Izawa thinks highly of and has been heavily influenced by Shunshin Chin and Takeshi Umehara. He reveres Umehara, a pioneer of the view that Japanese history has been shaped by the fear of onryo, as being “someone who is like a beloved teacher to me”. The theories about Kakinomoto no Hitomaro's life espoused in his book ''Sarumaru Genshi-ko'' are taken from Umehara's ''Minasoko no Uta''. His style of writing history takes into account his thorough dissection and criticism of “the three great flaws of the study of history”, which include the “authoritarianism” of professional historical societies, an excessively empirical reliance on historical documents as opposed to the unsaid or unconscious factors of history, and the ignoring or belittling of mystical and religious aspects. He is vocal about problems with the way Japanese people perceive their history centering on the

Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War was fought between the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic of China and the Empire of Japan between 1937 and 1945, following a period of war localized to Manchuria that started in 1931. It is considered part ...

and

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and frequently contributes articles on the subject to journals of opinion such as the biweekly magazine SAPIO. He is critical of the stance of the mass media towards history including the

Asahi Shimbun is a Japanese daily newspaper founded in 1879. It is one of the oldest newspapers in Japan and Asia, and is considered a newspaper of record for Japan. The ''Asahi Shimbun'' is one of the five largest newspapers in Japan along with the ''Yom ...

which he blasted in a book co-written with

Yoshinori Kobayashi is a Japanese manga artist known for his far-right political commentary manga ''Gōmanism Sengen''. In particular, the three volumes '' On War'' (''Sensōron'') of this series made him famous in Japan, together selling more than 1.5 million ...

. Izawa is affiliated with the

Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform The is a group founded in December 1996 to promote a nationalistic view of the history of Japan. Productions and views The Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform describes their goal as combatting what it sees as masochistic depictions ...

and is an active denier of the

Nanjing massacre The Nanjing Massacre, or the Rape of Nanjing (formerly Chinese postal romanization, romanized as ''Nanking'') was the mass murder of Chinese civilians, noncombatants, and surrendered prisoners of war by the Imperial Japanese Army in Nanji ...

. As a member of this society, his books were among those owned by Nishi Library in

Funabashi is a Cities of Japan, city located in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 644,668 in 309,238 households and a population density of . The total area of the city is . It is the Greater Tokyo Area's 7th most populat ...

which were destroyed in 2001 by the librarians. In 2005 the Supreme Court ordered the library to pay compensation for the loss.

Criticism

After the Chuo Gishi Kai, a group dedicated to studying the

47 ronin 47, 47 or forty-seven may refer to: *47 (number) * 47 BC * AD 47 *1947 *2047 * '47 (brand), an American clothing brand * ''47'' (magazine), an American publication * 47 (song), a song by Sidhu Moose Wala *47, a song by New Found Glory from the a ...

, wrote a detailed and scathing criticism of one volume in his ''Gyakusetsu no Nihonshi'' subtitled “The Mystery of Chushingura”, it became clear that Izawa was not at all able to read old Japanese documents. The late historian Eiichi Matsushima who was a professor at Waseda University criticized him on this matter and at one point Izawa changed his views, though he retracted his change of heart after Matsushima's death. In a 12 December 2007 column for the magazine SAPIO he attacked

Kenzaburō Ōe was a Japanese writer and a major figure in contemporary Japanese literature. His novels, short stories and essays, strongly influenced by French and American literature and literary theory, deal with political, social and philosophical issue ...

’s 1970 essay Okinawa Note but when quoting similar criticism by

Ayako Sono was a Japanese writer. Sono was considered to be a conservative and was also considered to be an advisor to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe who had had drawn controversy for advocating for a system similar to South Africa's apartheid for Japan's imm ...

from a 28 November column in the same magazine he conspicuously fixated on Sono’s infamous misreading by swapping her use of ''kyokai'' (巨魁 meaning ringleader) with the correct ''kyokai'' (巨塊 meaning colossal mass).

TV appearances

He has made appearances on many television programs including " Takajin no Sokomade Itte Iinkai" and "Wake up!" on

Yomiuri TV JOIX-DTV (channel 10), branded as , is the Kansai region flagship station of the Nippon News Network and the Nippon Television Network System, owned by the , itself a subsidiary of Yomiuri Chukyo FS Broadcasting Holdings. FYCS is partially c ...

and "

Koko ga Hen da yo Nihonjin was a Japanese TV show that was broadcast weekly from 1998 to 2002 on TBS. It consisted of two panels: One was a group of Japanese celebrities notably consisting of Takeshi Kitano, Konishiki, Ruy Ramos and Terry Ito. The other panel was a pool ...

" on TBS, and is the Monday commentator on "Yoshida Terumi Soko daiji na Koto" on NCB. He has also served as a regular commentator on the TV show “Historical Discoveries” on

NHK , also known by its Romanization of Japanese, romanized initialism NHK, is a Japanese public broadcasting, public broadcaster. It is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television licence, television license fee. NHK ope ...

. In recent years his TV appearances in Tokyo have been scarce but he continues to appear in

Kansai The or the lies in the southern-central region of Japan's main island Honshū. The region includes the prefectures of Nara, Wakayama, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyōgo and Shiga, often also Mie, sometimes Fukui, Tokushima and Tottori. The metropoli ...

, including several times on "Be-bop High Heel" on

Asahi TV JOEX-DTV (channel 5), branded as , and better known as , is a Japanese television station serving the Kanto region as the flagship station of the All-Nippon News Network. It is owned-and-operated by the a subsidiary of , itself controlled by Th ...

. He even appeared on " Hikari Ota's If I Were Prime Minister... Secretary Tanaka" in which he analyzed the Japanese people's religious outlook and belief in

and a lively debate ensued based on his cherished theories.

Other views and activities

He advocates democratic fundamentals in both Japanese society and politics. In January 2012 he went to work at the headquarters of the Chūkyō Dokuritsu Senryaku Honbu which seeks to abolish

Aichi Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshū. Aichi Prefecture has a population of 7,461,111 () and a geographic area of with a population density of . Aichi Prefecture borders Mie Prefecture to the ...

and elevate Nagoya to metropolis-level status as Tokyo already is. He expressed his sympathy to Koichi Kato when his home was burned down and on the occasion argued for a reappraisal of his political record. In 2010 Izawa also worked on a committee to commemorate the 1300th anniversary of the moving of the Japanese capital to Heijo-kyo. He loves baseball and partly because of his Nagoya origins, he is also a fan of the

Chunichi Dragons The are a professional baseball team based in Nagoya, the chief city in the Chūbu region of Japan. The team plays in the Central League of Nippon Professional Baseball. They have won the Central League pennant nine times (most recently in 2011 ...

References

External links

Motohiko Izawa’s Study – official website and e-mail newsletter

{{DEFAULTSORT:Izawa, Motohiko 20th-century Japanese novelists 21st-century Japanese novelists Japanese mystery writers Edogawa Rampo Prize winners Nanjing Massacre deniers Japanese anti-communists Writers from Nagoya 1954 births Living people Waseda University alumni Japanese historical negationists Activists from Nagoya