Japanese Literary Awards

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Minato Kawamura

かわむら みなと

Kawamura Minato

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1951-02-23 （Abashiri, Hokkaido, Japan）
Nationality
Japan
Languages
Japanese
Residence History
Abashiri, Hokkaido, Japan → Busan, South Korea (Dong-A University) → Tokyo, Japan (Hosei University)

Career

Occupations
literary critic, university professor
Active Years
1974-
Affiliations
Hosei University, Dong-A University (South Korea), Japan PEN Club
Memberships
Japan PEN Club, Association of Writers for a Nuclear-Free Society (member/participant)
Influenced By
Karatani Kōjin

Education

Hokkaido Sunagawa Minami High School
Country: Japan
Hosei University
Faculty of Law / Department of Political Science
Degree: 学士（法学）
Period: 1970-1974
Year of Graduation: 1974
Country: Japan

Awards

Gunzo New Writers' Literary Prize
1980
Work: On the Strange: An Essay on Tsurezuregusa
Organization: Gunzo (magazine)
Result: 優秀作（選出）
Hirabayashi Taiko Literary Prize
1995
Work: Japanese Literature of the South Seas and Karafuto
Organization: Hirabayashi Taiko Literary Prize
Result: 受賞
Ito Sei Literary Award
2004
Work: Fudaraku: A Journey into Kannon Faith
Organization: Ito Sei Literary Award
Result: 受賞
Yomiuri Literary Prize
2008
Work: Gozu Tennō and the Somin Shōrai Legend
Organization: Yomiuri Shimbun
Result: 受賞

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Fudaraku: A Journey into Kannon Faith

2003 Travelogue / Religious Studies

A travelogue and study that investigates Kannon worship and folk traditions, examining the relationship between religion and regional culture.

Kannon devotionfolklore studiesregional culture

Gozu Tennō and the Somin Shōrai Legend: The Suppressed Foreign Deities

2007 Folklore / Religious Studies

A study centered on Gozu Tennō and the Somin Shōrai legend that examines folk belief and the history of religion. An expanded edition was issued in 2021.

folk beliefmyths and legendshistory of religion

Japanese Literature of the South Seas and Karafuto

1994 Literary Criticism / Regional Studies

A critical study tracing the development of Japanese-language literature in former colonies, interpreting marginality and the effects of colonialism.

colonial literaturemarginalitylanguage policy

Realm of the Strange

1983 Literary Criticism

An early collection of criticism that discusses strangeness and marginal themes, drawing on classical and early-modern Japanese literature.

classical criticismstrangenessearly-modern literature

Literary Reviews 1993-2007

2008 Criticism / Column Collection

A collected volume of literary columns originally serialized in the Mainichi Shimbun, covering reviews from 1993 to 2007.

contemporary literary criticismtheory of criticismcultural commentary

Bibliography

  • Collected Criticism of Minato Kawamura (4 vols.)
  • Realm of the Strange
  • The Story Called Criticism
  • Sound Is an Illusion
  • Landscapes with Neighbors
  • The Youth of 'Drunken Ship' — Another Wartime and Postwar
  • My Busan
  • Melancholy of Seoul
  • Asia as Mirror — Modernity in the Far East
  • Murder in Paper
  • Expatriate Showa Literature — 'Manchuria' and Modern Japan
  • Kotodama and the Other World
  • Biographies of Early Modern Kyogen: The Fictional Space of Edo
  • Traveling Mother Asia: Syncretism Travelogue
  • Japanese Literature of the South Seas and Karafuto
  • Japanese Across the Seas — The 'National Language' in Colonies
  • Questioning Postwar Literature — Its Experience and Ideals
  • The Truth and Fiction of 'Great East Asia Folklore Studies'
  • Collapse of Manchuria — 'Greater East Asia Literature' and Its Writers
  • Phantom Journey on the Manchurian Railway
  • Postwar Criticism
  • Manchuria Seen from Literature — The Dream and Reality of 'Harmony of Five Peoples'
  • Where You Are Born Is Home — On Zainichi Korean Literature
  • The Empire of Japan in Compositions
  • Reading the Wind, Writing the Water — Minorities in Literature
  • Tales of Seoul — History, Literature, and Landscape
  • Kisaeng — A Cultural History of the 'Speaking Flower'
  • Japan's Heretical Literature
  • Masterful Sentences That Move the Soul
  • Reading Korea, Joseon, and Zainichi
  • In Search of Muneaki: The Daughter of a Story
  • Arirang Hill Cinema Street: A Walk Through Korean Film History
  • How to Read Haruki Murakami
  • On Hot Spring Literature
  • Dark Matara God: Pursuing the Mystery of Shifting Foreign Deities
  • Biography of Wolf Hayate: The Life and Literature of Atsushi Nakajima
  • Novels I Read Back Then — Minato Kawamura's Reviews
  • Box of Heresy — Essays on Mystery, Horror, and Fantasy
  • Fukushima Nuclear Disaster: The People Who Lied About the Safety Myth
  • Nuclear Power and the Bomb — The Postwar Mental History of 'Nuclear'
  • On Literature of Disasters and Nuclear Power
  • Gods Crossing the Straits: Pursuing Amenohiboko and the Himekoso Deities
  • Minato Kawamura Selected Works (5 vols.)
  • Paper Fortress — On Self-Defense Forces Literature
  • Echoes of War: The Fate of Militarism, Imperialism, and theocracy
  • Can Haruki Murakami Win the Nobel Prize?
  • Do You See, Young Man? Okinawa Film Studies
  • Mushroom Clouds on the Silver Screen: How Films Have Portrayed 'Nuclear/Atomic Power'
  • Yuko Tsushima: Light and Water Cover the Earth
  • Summer in the Hospice Ward
  • Stories of the Japones Immigrant Village
  • COVID-19 Human Disaster Record: 31 Days of the Pandemic
  • Bear God

Style & Themes

Literary Style
scholarly yet critical proseessayistic voice combining fieldwork and archival research
Recurring Motifs
colonial and marginal perspectivesfolk beliefs and legendswar and memoryrelations between society and literature

Legacy

One of Japan's prominent literary critics, writing broadly from classical criticism to Zainichi Korean literature, colonial literatures and folklore. Long-serving professor at Hosei University and later professor emeritus; recipient of multiple literary awards and known for long-running criticism columns in the Mainichi Shimbun.

Academic Societies

  • Japan PEN Club

Archives

  • National Diet Library (Japan) holdings
  • Hosei University Library holdings
  • Bibliothèque nationale de France (catalogue entry)
  • Library of Congress (catalogue entry)

Trivia

  • His wife was translator Aiko Kawamura (1951–2017).
  • His eldest son, Misaki Kawamura, has been reported as an IT company executive.
  • Noted as the only winner/selected author in the history of the Gunzo New Writers' Prize to be recognized for a classical-literature critique (1980, selected as an excellent work).
  • Serialized literary reviews in the Mainichi Shimbun from 1993 to March 2010 (17 years).
  • Professor Emeritus of the Faculty of Global and Interdisciplinary Studies, Hosei University.