Japanese Literary Awards

← Back to Home

Yuji Usui

うすい ゆうじ

Usui Yūji

Aliases: 薄井 雄二 / くじら鳥 / たの・かえる
Pen Names: Kujira-dori（Online handle / pen name）, Tano Kaeru（Used as illustrator pen name）

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1949-01-01 （Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan）
Nationality
Japan
Languages
Japanese

Career

Occupations
Novelist, Illustrator, Translator, Publishing/production company owner
Active Years
1988-
Affiliations
Ihatov Co., Ltd. (advertising/editing production), JALInet (JAPAN LITERATURE net) — founding initiator
Influenced By
Michio Tsuzuki, Yasutaka Tsutsui

Education

Ibaraki Prefectural Tsuchiura First High School
Country: Japan

Awards

Shosetsu Gendai New Writer's Prize (51st)
1988
Work: Zanzou Shounen ("Residual Image Boy")
Result: Winner
Yoshikawa Eiji Literary Newcomer Award (15th)
1994
Work: The Grass Fish on the Tree
Result: Winner

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

The Room with the Angel Cat

1991 Novel (fantasy)

A fantastical novel about lonely characters and their encounters with a mysterious 'angel cat.'

lonelinessfantasycats

The Grass Fish on the Tree

1993 Novel (contemporary literature)

Through a strange creature appearing atop a tree and its interactions with townspeople, the work explores family and renewal.

familyregenerationthe supernatural

The Whale-Falling Forest

1991 Fiction (fantastical stories/short stories)

A collection of short and medium-length stories set around the uncanny premise of whales falling from the sky.

strange natural phenomenafantasynostalgia

Blue Time

1995 Short stories / ensemble

A group of short stories that examine dislocations of time and memory, where the ordinary meets the extraordinary.

timememoryboundaries between reality and fantasy

Transparent Ark

1995 Novel (fantasy)

An allegorical tale of journey and loss, where reality and symbolism overlap.

lossjourneyallegory

The Demon of Stockholm

2000 Novel (elements of mystery)

Set in Northern Europe, this novel mixes a sense of foreignness with mystery, where exotic landscapes cast shadows over the story.

alienationmysterycultural distance

Bibliography

  • The Room with the Angel Cat
  • The Whale-Falling Forest
  • The Grass Fish on the Tree
  • The Touch of Stars
  • Blue Time
  • Transparent Ark
  • Hokuriku Phantasmagoria: Lovers of Another World
  • The Door of Rain
  • What the Afternoon Footsteps Did to Me
  • Typhoon Girl
  • The Pillow-Clock Woman
  • Full Moon Stories
  • Paradox of the Gods
  • Yukikonna
  • The Hunters
  • The Shy Rainbow
  • Raising the Dodo
  • President's Tale
  • Fourteen-Year-Old Drift
  • The Demon of Stockholm
  • Lakebed
  • Rings of Water
  • Beyond (Collected Masterpieces)
  • Grandpa Rider
  • The Lonely Elephant of Kyōhō

Translations by Author

  • Stephen Young — "Bookworms: Their Ecology and Pathology — Protecting Them from Extinction" (translation, Arton, 2002)
  • Bong Joon-ho / Shim Sun-bo — "Memories of Murder" (interpretive translation, Arton, 2004)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
strongly fantastical imageryblending of everyday and uncannylyrical, slightly melancholic narration
Recurring Motifs
catswater / lakesthe moonforestsmemory and temporal dislocation

Legacy

Known for blending fantastical motifs with subtle dislocations of everyday life, Usui was active mainly from the 1990s onward. He won awards such as the Shosetsu Gendai New Writer's Prize and the Yoshikawa Eiji Literary Newcomer Award, and holds a distinct place in contemporary Japanese literature.

Archives

  • National Diet Library of Japan (author catalogue)
  • Library of Congress (records)

Trivia

  • Worked as an illustrator under the name "Tano Kaeru."
  • Also known online by the handle "Kujira-dori."
  • Shifted to fiction after attending a creative writing course taught by Michio Tsuzuki.
  • Won the 51st Shosetsu Gendai New Writer's Prize (1988) and the 15th Yoshikawa Eiji Literary Newcomer Award (1994).