Japanese Literary Awards

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Mori Ei

もり えい

Mori Ei

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1941-12-14 （Tokyo Prefecture, Japan）
Nationality
Japan
Languages
Japanese

Career

Occupations
Novelist, Journalist
Active Years
1971-
Affiliations
Japan Writers' Association (director), Japan PEN Club (member)
Memberships
Japan Writers' Association, Japan PEN Club
Nominations
93rd Naoki Prize (candidate) — 'Ame wa Itsu made Furitsuzuku'

Education

Tochigi Prefectural Kuroiso High School
Country: Japan
Tokyo University of Foreign Studies
Italian Language Department
Country: Japan
Studied Italian

Awards

Japan Adventure Writers Association Grand Prize (Kansha Kangeki Long Novel Award)
1982
Work: Moeru Hatou
Organization: Japan Adventure Writers Association
Result: Winner
Tsubota Jōji Literary Prize
1994
Work: Osamu no Asa
Organization: Tsubota Jōji Literary Prize Committee
Result: Winner

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Moeru Hatou

1982 Alternate history / Military fiction

A multi-volume alternate-history series set in Japan depicting military conflict and national crisis (6 volumes).

warnationmilitary strategy

How Long Will the Rain Keep Falling

1985 Fiction

A novel combining police-story elements and human drama; it was a Naoki Prize candidate.

justicehuman relationshipssociety

Osamu's Morning

1994 Autobiographical novel

An autobiographical novel drawing on the author's youth; part of it was adapted into a film.

coming of agememoryfamily
Adaptations
  • [Film] Nasu Shonenki (2008)

Bibliography

  • Kuro no Kikan: How 'Special Agencies' Revived After the War
  • The Black Dragon: Shanghai Connections
  • Moeru Hatou (6 volumes)
  • How Long Will the Rain Keep Falling
  • Osamu's Morning
  • Nakagawa Seishunki
  • The Wandering Policeman

Adaptations

  • Nasu Shonenki (film, 2008)

Translations by Author

  • Last Will Executed (Shelby Yastrow)
  • The Lost World (Arthur Conan Doyle translation)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
a terse, detail-rich style with extensive military and intelligence descriptionsapproach informed by nonfiction investigation and engagement with contemporary politics
Recurring Motifs
battlefields and their aftermathcoming-of-age and disillusionmentinterstate conflict and conspiracy

Legacy

Known for alternate-history military fiction and police novels, he influenced Japan's adventure and military fiction scene from the 1980s onward; his autobiographical works about youth have also been recognized.

Academic Societies

  • Japan Writers' Association
  • Japan PEN Club

Archives

  • Holdings at the National Diet Library (Japan)

In Popular Culture

  • Film 'Nasu Shonenki' (2008) adapted from 'Osamu's Morning' was released

Trivia

  • His older brother is Minamiyama Hiroshi (also known as Mori Yuu), former editor of SF Magazine.
  • He signed a writers' statement opposing the Gulf War deployment in 1991.