was a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

author and

Sinologist Sinology, also referred to as China studies, is a subfield of area studies or East Asian studies involved in social sciences and humanities research on China. It is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of the Chinese civilizatio ...

. He graduated from

Keio University , abbreviated as or , is a private university, private research university located in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. It was originally established as a school for Rangaku, Western studies in 1858 in Edo. It was granted university status in 1920, becomi ...

and won the

Naoki Prize The Naoki Prize, officially , is a Japanese literary award presented biannually. It was created in 1935 by Kikuchi Kan, then editor of the ''Bungeishunjū'' magazine, and named in memory of novelist Naoki Sanjugo. Sponsored by the Society for ...

in 1951 for ''Iesu no Ei'' (lit. ''Descendant of Jesus''). He is famous for ''

Nemuri Kyōshirō is a series of jidaigeki novels written by Renzaburō Shibata. The stories were originally serialized beginning in May 1956 in the ''Shūkan Shinchō''. The stories take place during the Edo period under the Tokugawa shogunate and the rules of ...

'', a series of ''

jidaigeki is a genre of film, television, and theatre in Japan. Literally meaning "historical drama, period dramas", it refers to stories that take place before the Meiji Restoration of 1868. ''Jidaigeki'' show the lives of the samurai, farmers, crafts ...

'' novels. He also published a new Japanese translation of ''

Romance of the Three Kingdoms ''Romance of the Three Kingdoms'' () is a 14th-century historical novel attributed to Luo Guanzhong. It is set in the turbulent years towards the end of the Han dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period in Chinese history, starting in 184 AD and ...

'' and ''

Water Margin ''Water Margin'' (), also called ''Outlaws of the Marsh'' or ''All Men Are Brothers'', is a Chinese novel from the Ming dynasty that is one of the preeminent Classic Chinese Novels. Attributed to Shi Nai'an, ''Water Margin'' was one of the e ...

''.

Novels

*''

'' (1956) *'' Gokenin Zankurō'' (1976) *''

'' (1959) *''

'' *''Unmeitōge'' *''Iesu no Ei'' (lit. ''Descendant of Jesus'')

Adaptations

Film

* '' Destiny's Son'' (1962) * '' Enter Kyōshirō Nemuri the Swordman'' (1963) * '' Curse of the Blood'' (1968) * ''

Nemuri Kyōshirō manji giri is a 1969 Japanese film directed by Kazuo Ikehiro. It is based on Renzaburō Shibata's novel series '' Nemuri Kyoshiro''. The lead star is Hiroki Matsukata. He played the role of Nemuri Kyoshiro as a replacement for Ichikawa Raizō. In this fi ...

'' (1969)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shibata, Renzaburō 1917 births 1978 deaths Japanese sinologists Keio University alumni 20th-century Japanese novelists