Japanese Literary Awards

← Back to Home

Tsuneko Nakazato

なかざと つねこ

Nakazato Tsuneko

Aliases: 佐藤恒子

Profile

Gender
Female
Born
1909-12-23 （Fujisawa, Kanagawa, Japan）
Died
1987-04-05 age 77
Nationality
Japan
Languages
Japanese
Residence History
Fujisawa, Kanagawa, Japan → Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan → Zushi (Sakurayama), Kanagawa, Japan

Career

Occupations
Novelist
Active Years
1928-1987
Affiliations
Japan Art Academy, Member of Bungaku Dokuhon literary circle
Memberships
Japan Art Academy
Influenced By
Yokomitsu Riichi, Kawabata Yasunari, Nagai Tatsuo, Terasaki Hiroshi

Education

Kawasaki Municipal Kawasaki High School
Period: 1922-1925
Year of Graduation: 1925
Country: Japan

Awards

Akutagawa Prize
1939
Work: Shared Carriage; Nikko Room
Organization: Bungeishunjū
Result: 受賞
Yomiuri Literary Prize
1974
Work: Utamakura
Organization: Yomiuri Shimbun
Result: 受賞
Japan Art Academy (Onshi) Prize
1975
Work: Waga-an (My Hermitage)
Organization: Japan Art Academy
Result: 受賞
Women's Literature Award
1979
Work: Taresodegusa
Result: 受賞
Order of the Sacred Treasure, Third Class
1985
Organization: Government of Japan
Result: 受章

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Shared Carriage

1939 Novel

A short work about her brothers' international marriages, depicting cross-cultural marriage from a calm, observant female perspective.

international marriagewomen's perspectivefamily

Utamakura

1973 Novel

A novel depicting old age; written in elegant prose that traces subtle everyday emotions and the feelings of advancing years.

old agememoryfamily

Waga-an (My Hermitage)

1974 Novel

Waga-an is a reflective work containing personal recollections and observations of old age; it received the Japan Art Academy (Onshi) Prize.

essays/meditationsagingreminiscence

Shigure no Ki (A Record of Autumn Rain)

1977 Novel

A novel about middle-aged love; adapted into a film after the author's death, which brought renewed attention to the work.

lovemiddle agerecollection
Adaptations
  • [Film] Shigure no Ki

Taresodegusa

1978 Novel

A work treating themes of old age and women's lives; one of her notable pieces that received the Women's Literature Award.

women's lifeaginghome

Bibliography

  • Shared Carriage
  • Flowers of the Goose
  • Wild Roses
  • The Land to Live
  • Perpetual Summer
  • The Girl by the Sea
  • Spring Bird
  • Peacock
  • Evening Peony
  • On Purity
  • Evening Song
  • Young Grapes
  • Night Bridge
  • Season of Angels
  • Chains
  • This World
  • The Closed Sea: Life of the Lady of Ukyda Hidie (biographical)
  • Utamakura
  • Waga-an (My Hermitage)
  • Flower Casket
  • Field of Horsetails
  • A Patient Story
  • Oboro Gosho
  • Letters Back and Forth (with Uno Chiyo)
  • Shigure no Ki
  • Diamond Needle
  • Utsutsu River
  • Taresodegusa
  • A Place for a Short Sleep
  • The Sound of a Rooster
  • A Million
  • My Tales of Past and Present
  • Collected Works of Tsuneko Nakazato (18 vols.)
  • Road to the South
  • Water Mirror
  • Blue Flame
  • Unexpected Things
  • Inside the House
  • The Gate of Seki
  • The Lady of Scaled Brocade, Discarded Letters
  • Aya's Drum
  • Everyday Meals
  • The Swivel Chair
  • Memoirs of Forgetfulness
  • The Pine Wind Does Not Return
  • Otome no Minato (The Maiden's Harbor)

Adaptations

  • Shigure no Ki — film adaptation (posthumous)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
Elegant, lyrical prose that carefully depicts subtle emotions and details
Recurring Motifs
a woman's lifeold agefamilyinternational marriage

Health

  • Tuberculosis
    1932（療養）
    Required extended convalescence and influenced subsequent relocation (to Zushi) for recuperation.
  • Breast cancer (surgery)
    1980頃（乳がんの手術）
    Underwent surgery; this affected her life and work thereafter.
  • Intestinal obstruction (hospitalization)
    1986（入院）
    Required hospitalization and contributed to deterioration of health in later years.
  • Colorectal tumor (cause of death)
    1987（死去）
    Died in 1987 from a colorectal tumor at age 77.

Legacy

Tsuneko Nakazato is regarded as a novelist who depicted women's lives and old age in elegant prose. A recipient of the Akutagawa Prize and multiple other literary honors, she was also a member of the Japan Art Academy. Posthumous film adaptation of Shigure no Ki and continued readership have kept her profile alive; she is considered an important postwar Japanese woman writer.

Academic Societies

  • Japan Art Academy

In Popular Culture

  • Shigure no Ki was adapted into a film after the author's death, which renewed interest in the work.

Trivia

  • One of the early female recipients of the Akutagawa Prize (8th award).
  • Her family ran a long-established kimono/textile business; she grew up in Fujisawa, Kanagawa.
  • Her daughter's marriage to an American influenced Nakazato's perspective and appears in her writing.
  • In later years she received the Yomiuri Literary Prize, the Japan Art Academy Onshi Prize, and the Women's Literature Award.