Kikuko Tsumura

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Kikuko Tsumura
Native name
津村 記久子
Born1978 (age 45–46)
Osaka, Japan
OccupationWriter
LanguageJapanese
GenreFiction, short story
Notable works
  • Potosu raimu no fune
  • Myūjikku buresu yū!!
  • Wākāzu daijesuto
Notable awards

Kikuko Tsumura (津村 記久子, Tsumura Kikuko) is a Japanese writer from Osaka. She has won numerous Japanese literary awards, including the Akutagawa Prize, the Noma Literary New Face Prize, the Dazai Osamu Prize, the Kawabata Yasunari Prize, and the Oda Sakunosuke Prize.

Early life and education[edit]

Tsumura was born in Osaka, Japan in 1978. While commuting to school she read science fiction novels, especially the work of William Gibson, Philip K. Dick, and Kurt Vonnegut, and began writing her own novel, Man'ītā (Maneater), while still a third-year university student.[1] Man'ītā won the 21st Dazai Osamu Prize and was later published in book form under the title Kimi wa eien ni soitsura yori wakai.[2][3]

Career[edit]

In her first job out of college, Tsumura experienced workplace harassment and quit after ten months to retrain and find another position, an experience that inspired her to write stories about young workers.[4] In 2008 Tsumura won the Noma Literary New Face Prize for her book Myūjikku buresu yū!! (Music Bless You!!),[5] and in 2009 her novel Potosu raimu no fune (The Lime Pothos Boat), about a young woman experiencing precarious work, won the 140th Akutagawa Prize.[2][6] Japanese literature scholar Kendall Heitzman described The Lime Pothos Boat as a "triumph" that "carefully depicts with great nuance a small cast of characters with competing interests and desires."[7] Tsumura's book Wākāzu daijesuto (Workers' Digest), published in 2011, won the 28th Oda Sakunosuke Prize,[8] and in 2013 her short story "Kyūsuitō to kame" ("The Water Tower and the Turtle") won the 39th Kawabata Yasunari Prize.[9] The Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology recognized Tsumura's work with a New Artist award in 2016.[10]

Tsumura's writing often employs Kansai-ben, a distinctive Japanese dialect spoken in Osaka and surrounding cities.[11]

Awards[edit]

  • 2005 21st Dazai Osamu Prize[12] for Man'ītā (Maneater)
  • 2008 30th Noma Literary New Face Prize[5] for Myūjikku buresu yū!! (Music Bless You!!)
  • 2008 26th Sakuya Konohana Prize[13]
  • 2009 140th Akutagawa Prize (2008下)[14] for Potosu raimu no fune (The Lime Pothos Boat)
  • 2011 28th Oda Sakunosuke Prize[8] for Wākāzu daijesuto (Workers' Digest)
  • 2013 39th Kawabata Yasunari Prize[9] for Kyūsuitō to Kame (The Water Tower and The Turtle)
  • 2016 MEXT Award for New Artists[10] for Kono yo ni tayasui shigoto wa nai (There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job)
  • 2017 27th Murasaki Shikibu Literature Prize[15] for Fuyūrei Burajiru (A Wandering Ghost in Brazil)

Works[edit]

  • Areguria to wa shigoto wa dekinai, Chikuma Shobo, 2008, ISBN 9784480804174
  • Myūjikku buresu yū!! (Music Bless You!!), Kadokawa Shoten, 2008, ISBN 9784048738422
  • Kasōsuki no yukue, Kodansha, 2008, ISBN 9784062145374
  • Potosu raimu no fune (The Lime Pothos Boat), Kodansha, 2009, ISBN 9784062152877
  • Kimi wa eien ni soitsura yori wakai, Chikuma Shobo, 2009, ISBN 9784480426123
  • Wākāzu daijesuto (Workers' Digest), Shueisha, 2011, ISBN 9784087713954
  • Matomo na ie no kodomo wa inai, Chikuma Shobo, 2011, ISBN 9784480804327
  • Yaritai koto wa nidone dake, Kodansha, 2012, ISBN 9784062177054
  • Tonikaku uchi ni kaerimasu, Shinchosha, 2012, ISBN 9784103319818
  • Kore kara oinori ni ikimasu, Kadokawa Shoten, 2013, ISBN 9784041104699
  • Pōsuke, Chūō Kōron Shinsha, 2013, ISBN 9784120045752
  • Evurishingu furouzu, Bungei Shunjū, 2014, ISBN 9784163901121
  • Nidone towa tōku ni arite omō mono, Kodansha, 2015, ISBN 9784062190541
  • Konoyoni tayasui shigoto wa nai [ : この世にたやすい仕事はない] (There's No Such Thing As An Easy Job), Nikkei Business Publications Inc., 2015, ISBN 9781635576917, translated into English by Polly Barton, Bloomsbury Publishing, Inc. 2020-21. This is the first of Tsumura's books to be translated into English.[a][b]
  • Kuyokuyo manejimento, Seiryūshuppan, 2016, ISBN 9784860294465
  • Makuramoto no hondana, Jitsugyōnonihonsha, 2016, ISBN 9784408536897
  • Fuyūrei Burajiru (A Wandering Ghost in Brazil), Bungei Shunjū, 2016, ISBN 9784163905426
  • Uesuto uingu (West Wing), Asahi Shimbun Shuppan, 2017, ISBN 9784022648532
  • Manuke na koyomi, Heibonsha, 2017, ISBN 9784582837575
  • Disu izu za dei (This is the Day), Asahi Shimbun Shuppan, 2018, ISBN 9784022515483

———————

Notes
  1. ^ "There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job". Kirkus. Retrieved 6 January 2022.
  2. ^ Briefly reviewed in the May 31, 2021 issue of The New Yorker, p.63.

References[edit]

  1. ^ "作家の読書道 第155回：津村記久子さん". WEB本の雑誌 (in Japanese). 17 December 2014. Retrieved 1 July 2018.
  2. ^ a b "Tsumura, Tendo, Yamamoto win literature awards for fiction". Japan Times. 16 January 2009. Retrieved 1 July 2018.
  3. ^ 君は永遠にそいつらより若い / Kimi wa eien ni soitsura yori wakai. OCLC. OCLC 326505742. Retrieved 1 July 2018 – via WorldCat.
  4. ^ 寺西, 芝; 森脇, 早絵 (22 April 2010). "「笑えるぐらいひどい」と言われたパワハラ体験 辛くても、働くことが生きることだから書き続ける" (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 8 March 2011. Retrieved 1 July 2018.
  5. ^ a b "野間文芸新人賞 過去受賞作" (in Japanese). Kodansha. Archived from the original on 13 May 2019. Retrieved 1 July 2018.
  6. ^ Iwata-Weickgenannt, Kristina (27 November 2014). "Kirino Natsuo's Metabola, or the Okinawan stage, fractured selves and the precarity of contemporary existence". In Iwata-Weickgenannt, Kristina; Rosenbaum, Roman (eds.). Visions of Precarity in Japanese Popular Culture and Literature. Routledge. pp. 24–42. ISBN 9781317619109.
  7. ^ Heitzman, Kendall (3 June 2016). "20: The rise of women writers, the Heisei I-novel, and the contemporary bundan". In Hutchinson, Rachael; Morton, Leith Douglas (eds.). Routledge Handbook of Modern Japanese Literature. Routledge. pp. 285–298. ISBN 9781317647713.
  8. ^ a b "これまでの織田作之助賞受賞作一覧 1984～2013 年" (PDF). 大阪文学振興会 (Osaka Literature Promotion Institute) (in Japanese). Retrieved 1 July 2018.
  9. ^ a b "第39回 川端康成文学賞受賞作品発表" (in Japanese). Shinchosha. Archived from the original on 27 May 2013. Retrieved 1 July 2018.
  10. ^ a b "芸術選奨歴代受賞者一覧（昭和25年度～）" (PDF). Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan (in Japanese). Retrieved 1 July 2018.
  11. ^ "Authors: Kikuko Tsumura". Books from Japan. Retrieved 1 July 2018.
  12. ^ "太宰治賞受賞者一覧" (in Japanese). Chikuma Shobō. Retrieved 1 July 2018.
  13. ^ "これまでの受賞者 | 咲くやこの花賞". www.sakuya-konohana.com. Retrieved 29 August 2019.
  14. ^ "芥川賞受賞者一覧" (in Japanese). 日本文学振興会. Retrieved 1 July 2018.
  15. ^ "紫式部文学賞 - 受賞作品 | 宇治市公式ホームページ ~宇治茶と源氏物語のまち~". www.city.uji.kyoto.jp (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 29 August 2019. Retrieved 29 August 2019.
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