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Shumon Miura

みうら しゅもん

Miura Shumon

Pen Names: Shumon Miura（Used as a pen name / author name）

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1926-01-12 （Higashi-Nakano, Nakano-ku, Tokyo, Japan）
Died
2017-02-03 （Tokyo, Japan） age 91
Nationality
Japan
Languages
Japanese
Religion
Catholicism
Residence History
Higashi-Nakano, Nakano-ku, Tokyo (birthplace) → Denenchofu, Ota-ku, Tokyo (residence) → Aichi Prefecture (worked at Chubu University)

Career

Occupations
Novelist, Essayist, Critic, Translator, University professor, Cultural administrator
Active Years
1951-2017
Affiliations
Nihon University College of Art (Professor), Chubu University (Professor; former President), Japan Art Academy (Chairman; Member), Japan Writers' Association (Chairman)
Memberships
Japan Art Academy, Japan Writers' Association
Influenced By
Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Itsuo Miura (father), Shūsaku Endō (contemporary writer; co-author)
Nominations
Akutagawa Prize nominee: 'Ono to Bachō' (1952)

Education

University of Tokyo
Faculty of Letters / Department of Linguistics
Degree: 学士（文学）
Period: 1945–1948
Year of Graduation: 1948
Country: Japan
Returned to studies after World War II and graduated in 1948

Awards

Shinchōsha Literary Prize
1967
Work: Hakoniwa (The Miniature Garden)
Organization: Shinchōsha Publishing
Result: winner
Order of St. Sylvester (Papal Knighthood)
1970
Organization: The Holy See
Result: recipient
Arts Encouragement Prize (Minister of Education Award)
1983
Work: Musashino Indian
Organization: Ministry of Education / Agency for Cultural Affairs
Result: winner
Japan Art Academy Prize / Imperial Prize (Onshi Award)
1987
Organization: Japan Art Academy
Result: winner
Seiron Prize
1999
Organization: Seiron Prize Committee
Result: winner
Person of Cultural Merits
1999
Organization: Government of Japan
Result: honored

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Meifu Sansuizu (Landscape of the Underworld)

1951 Novel

Debut work. Short/novella exploring postwar nihilism and human loneliness.

postwar Japannihilismindividual vs society

The Celluloid Tower

1960 Novel

A novel set against film and contemporary culture, depicting human relationships and desires.

mediadesirehuman relationships

Hakoniwa (The Miniature Garden)

1967 Novel

A hallmark work on family and inner worlds. Winner of the 1967 Shinchōsha Literary Prize.

familyinner lifenostalgia

Musashino Indian

1982 Novel

A work addressing local communities and Japanese identity; recipient of the Arts Encouragement Prize.

regionalismidentityJapanese society

Longing for Home

1987 Novel

A work dealing with aging and nostalgia.

agingnostalgiafamily

Bibliography

  • Meifu Sansuizu (Landscape of the Underworld)
  • Lagoon
  • Faces on the Map
  • The Celluloid Tower
  • When the Sheep Are Angry
  • The Child
  • On Women: Paradoxical Woman-Loving
  • Myth
  • Hakoniwa (The Miniature Garden)
  • Young Fruit
  • Departure from Love: Seeking from Heart to Heart
  • To Live Love Once: Wisdom from Heart to Heart
  • Garden of Teaching
  • In the Middle of the Road
  • Tower of Babel
  • Accuse the Blue Bird
  • Crow
  • A Distant Journey
  • Housing-Complex Elementary School
  • Ellipse
  • Mammoth
  • Delinquents' Paradise
  • Japan Seen from Southeast Asia
  • Musashino Indian
  • Longing for Home
  • The Emperor's Showa
  • The Head of the Family
  • Parents Should Die for Their Children
  • Artificial Flower
  • Dignity of Old Age
  • The Emperor: Japan's Disposition
  • What the Emperor Means to the Japanese

Translations by Author

  • My Name Is Aram (William Saroyan) — translation
  • Heaven Doesn't Pay Dividends (Richard Kaufmann) — translation
  • The Day Christ Died (Jim Bishop) — translation
  • The Fourth Dimension: Fantastical Short Stories (Clifton Fadiman) — translation

Style & Themes

Literary Style
clear and persuasive narrationessayistic and polemical style
Recurring Motifs
the Japanese statefamilyeducationagingChristian themes

Health

  • Interstitial pneumonia
    2017年に悪化し2017-02-03に死去
    He died of interstitial pneumonia on 3 February 2017, bringing his writing and public activities to an end.

Legacy

A representative postwar Japanese writer and leader in cultural administration. Known for conservative commentary, influence on education and cultural policy, and controversial remarks.

Academic Societies

  • Japan Art Academy
  • Japan Writers' Association

In Popular Culture

  • Subject of media controversies and debates on education and social issues from the 1980s onward.

Quotes

  • I meant it as a pun as a mercenary writer, but I reflect that I made mistakes in various respects.
    Source: Apology at the House of Councillors Education Committee (1985) (1985)
  • One can live without solving quadratic equations.
    Source: Statement cited in discussions of the National Curriculum Council (education debate) (2000)

Trivia

  • His pen name 'Shumon' is said to derive from the saint Simon Peter; his father Itsuo Miura was a Dante scholar of Italian literature.
  • He was married to writer Ayako Sono; the couple were Catholic believers.
  • He served on the faculty of Nihon University College of Art and resigned after the 1969 student unrest there.
  • He held major cultural-administrative posts including Commissioner of the Agency for Cultural Affairs and Chairman of the Japan Art Academy.
  • From the 1980s he drew major controversy over remarks on sexual violence and education.
  • He died in 2017 of interstitial pneumonia at the age of 91.