was a Japanese writer.

Biography

Yasuoka was born in pre-war Japan in

Kōchi, Kōchi is the capital city of Kōchi Prefecture located on the island of Shikoku in Japan. With over 40% of the prefectural population, Kōchi is the main commercial and industrial centre and the " primate city" of the prefecture. , the city had an ...

, but as the son of a veterinary corpsman in the Imperial Army, he spent most of his youth moving from one military post to another. In 1944, he was conscripted and served briefly overseas. After the war, he became ill with spinal

caries Tooth decay, also known as cavities or caries, is the breakdown of teeth due to acids produced by bacteria. The cavities may be a number of different colors from yellow to black. Symptoms may include pain and difficulty with eating. Complicatio ...

, and it was "while he was bedridden with this disease that he began his writing career." Yasuoka died in his home at age 92 in Tokyo, Japan.

Awards

As an influential Japanese writer, Yasuoka's work has won him various prizes and awards. Notably, he received 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 ...

for ''Inki na tanoshimi'' (''A Melancholy Pleasure'', 1953) and ''Warui nakama'' (''Bad Company'', 1953); ''Kaihen no kōkei'' (''A View by the Sea'', 1959) won him the

Noma Literary Prize The Noma Literary Prize (''Noma Bungei Shō'') was established in 1941 by the Noma Service Association (''Noma Hōkō Kai'') in accordance with the last wishes of Seiji Noma (1878–1938), founder and first president of the Kodansha publishing c ...

; and his ''Maku ga orite kara'' (''After the Curtain Fell'', 1967) won the

Mainichi Cultural Prize The is one of the major newspapers in Japan, published by In addition to the ''Mainichi Shimbun'', which is printed twice a day in several local editions, Mainichi also operates an English language news website called ''The Mainichi'' (pre ...

. He also received the

Yomiuri Literary 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 ''Hate mo nai dōchūki'' (''The Never-ending Traveler's Journal'', 1996); and the Osaragi Jirō Prize for ''Kagamigawa'' (''The Kagami River'', 2000). A leading figure in

post-war In Western usage, the phrase post-war era (or postwar era) usually refers to the time since the end of World War II. More broadly, a post-war period (or postwar period) is the interval immediately following the end of a war. A post-war period ...

Japanese literature, in 2001 Yasuoka was recognized by the Japanese government as a

Person of Cultural Merit is an official Japanese recognition and honor which is awarded annually to select people who have made outstanding cultural contributions. This distinction is intended to play a role as a part of a system of support measures for the promotion of ...

. "Cultural Highlights; From the Japanese Press (August 1–October 31, 2001),"
''Japan Foundation Newsletter'', Vol. XXIX, No. 2, p. 7.

Literature

References

External links

Shotaro Yasuoka
at J'Lit Books from Japan {{DEFAULTSORT:Yasuoka, Shotaro 1920 births 2013 deaths 20th-century Japanese novelists 21st-century Japanese novelists Japanese male short story writers People from Kōchi, Kōchi Akutagawa Prize winners Yomiuri Prize winners 20th-century Japanese short story writers 21st-century Japanese short story writers 20th-century Japanese male writers 21st-century male writers Japanese military personnel of World War II Writers from Kōchi Prefecture