was a Japanese novelist and short-story writer, and a member of the so-called " Third Generation of Postwar Writers" (第3の新人).

Life

Yoshiyuki was born in

Okayama is the capital city of Okayama Prefecture in the Chūgoku region of Japan. The city was founded on June 1, 1889. , the city has an estimated population of 720,841 and a population density of 910 persons per km2. The total area is . The city is ...

, the oldest child of author Yoshiyuki Eisuke, but his family moved to

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

when he was 3. He attended Shizuoka High School, where he grew interested in

Thomas Mann Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novella ...

's stories, and in 1945 entered the

University of Tokyo , abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project by ...

. He left the university without a degree and began working full-time as an editor at a weekly scandal magazine, while spending much of his leisure time gambling, drinking, and frequenting prostitutes. Sexuality and prostitution would form a consistent theme in his writing.

Works and awards

Yoshiyuki's first published fiction was ''Bara Hanbainin'' (薔薇販売人, The Rose Seller, 1950), followed by the novels ''Genshoku no Machi'' (The City of Primary Colors, 1951, revised 1956), ''Shū'' (驟雨, Sudden Shower, 1954), for which he won the

Akutagawa Prize The is a Japanese literary award presented biannually. Because of its prestige and the considerable attention the winner receives from the media, it is, along with the Naoki Prize, one of Japan's most sought after literary prizes. History ...

, and ''Shofu no Heya'' (Room of a Whore, 1958). His novel ''Anshitsu'' (暗室, The Dark Room, 1969) won the

Tanizaki Prize The Tanizaki Prize (谷崎潤一郎賞 ''Tanizaki Jun'ichirō Shō''), named in honor of the Japanese novelist Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, is one of Japan's most sought-after literary awards. It was established in 1965 by the publishing company Chūō ...

. He won the

Yomiuri Prize The is a literary award in Japan. The prize was founded in 1949 by the Yomiuri Shinbun Company to help form a "strong cultural nation". The winner is awarded two million Japanese yen and an inkstone. Award categories For the first two years, ...

for his 1974 novel . Another of his most celebrated works, ''Yugure Made'' (夕暮れまで, 1978, published in English translation as ''Toward Dusk and Other Stories'' by Kurodahan Press, 2011), took 13 years to write but once published quickly became a best-seller and won the Noma Literary Prize. See also ''Fair Dalliance: Fifteen Stories by Yoshiyuki Junnosuke'', Kurodahan Press, 2011.

References

External links

Junnosuke Yoshiyuki
at J'Lit Books from Japan

Writers Noone Reads compilation on works in English
20th-century Japanese novelists Japanese male short story writers People from Okayama 1924 births 1994 deaths Akutagawa Prize winners Yomiuri Prize winners University of Tokyo alumni 20th-century Japanese short story writers 20th-century Japanese male writers {{japan-writer-stub