DatabaseScriptwriters Database
Yasuoka Shotaro
- Profile
- He was born in Kochi Prefecture in 1920. He entered Keio University. While still a student, he was drafted into the army, following the mobilization of students, and was sent to Manchuria. His unit was annihilated on Leyte Island in the Philippines, but he was repatriated to Japan after contracting pulmonary tuberculosis. After the war, despite suffering from spinal caries, he began writing novels. In 1953, he won the Akutagawa Prize for his novels Inki na Tanoshimi (A Melancholy Pleasure) and Warui Nakama (Bad Company). In 1960, he received the Art Encouragement Prize and the Noma Literary Prize for his novel Kaihen no Kokei (Seaside Landscape), and he was later invited by the Rockefeller Foundation to study in the United States. After studying in the United States, he became active in writing essays and novels. Known for delving into the inner lives of individuals and the public, his extensive body of work led him to be categorized as part of the Third Generation of Postwar Writers, a group that included Shūsaku Endō and Junnosuke Yoshiyuki. He won the Grand Prize of Japanese Literature for Ryūritan (Tales of Wanderings), the Yasunari Kawabata Prize for Oji no Bochi (My Uncle’s Graveyard), the Yomiuri Literary Prize (Essay and Travelogue) for Hate mo nai Dōchū-ki (Endless Travelogue), and the Jirō Osaragi Prize for Kagami-gawa (Kagami River). Moreover, his first original script for television, Wakare (The Separation), won the Encouragement Prize at the Art Festival. He was a member of the Japan Art Academy. He was a Person of Cultural Merit. He died in January 2013 at the age of 92.
- Masterpieces
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わかれ