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Toyoko Yamasaki

やまさき とよこ

Yamasaki Toyoko

Aliases: 杉本 豊子 / Sugimoto Toyoko
Pen Names: Toyoko Yamasaki（Pen name used for her literary career; birth name Sugimoto Toyoko.）

Profile

Gender
Female
Born
1924-01-02 （Minami Ward, Osaka City (now Chuo Ward, Semba), Osaka, Japan）
Died
2013-09-29 （Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, Japan (hospital)） age 89
Nationality
Japan
Languages
Japanese
Residence History
Osaka (birthplace and upbringing) → Sakai (later life)

Career

Occupations
Novelist, Writer, Journalist
Active Years
1957-2013
Memberships
Japan Writers Association (resigned and later rejoined)
Influenced By
Yasushi Inoue, Honoré de Balzac

Education

Kyoto Women's College (now Kyoto Women's University)
Department of Japanese Literature
Degree: 卒業
Period: 1941-1944
Year of Graduation: 1944
Country: Japan
Graduated from a pre-war women's college (old system).

Awards

39th Naoki Prize
1958
Work: Noren (The Shop Curtain)
Organization: Naoki Prize Selection Committee
Result: 受賞
Osaka Prefecture Arts Award
1959
Work: Bonchi
Organization: Osaka Prefecture
Result: 受賞
Fujin Koron Readers' Award (2nd)
1963
Work: Kamon
Organization: Fujin Koron (magazine)
Result: 受賞
Fujin Koron Readers' Award (6th)
1968
Work: Kaen
Organization: Fujin Koron (magazine)
Result: 受賞（後に返上）
52nd Bungeishunju Readers' Award
1990
Work: Children of the Earth
Organization: Bungeishunju
Result: 受賞
39th Kikuchi Kan Prize
1991
Organization: Kikuchi Kan Prize Selection Committee
Result: 受賞
63rd Mainichi Publishing Culture Award (Special Prize)
2009
Work: Fated Person (Unmei no Hito)
Organization: Mainichi Newspapers / Mainichi Publishing Culture Award Committee
Result: 受賞（特別賞）

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Noren (Shop Curtain)

1957 Novel (family / merchant story)

Her debut novel modeled on her family's kelp shop, depicting two generations of merchants.

FamilyCommercial societyOsaka customs
Adaptations
  • [Film / TV drama] Noren (adaptations)

Noren of Flowers (Noren)

1958 Novel (Osaka socio-cultural fiction)

A work depicting the ingenuity and business acumen of Osaka people; won the Naoki Prize.

Entrepreneurial spiritRegional culture
Adaptations
  • [Film / TV] Noren of Flowers (adaptations)

The White Tower

1965 Novel (medical / social novel)

An incisive long novel about university hospitals and the medical world; frequently adapted for TV and film.

Medical corruptionPower strugglesEthics
Adaptations
  • [Film] The White Tower (film)
  • [TV drama] The White Tower (TV drama)
Translations
  • The White Tower

The Noble Family / The Glorious Family

1973 Novel (corporate / zaibatsu drama)

An economic novel depicting the rise and fall of a family against the backdrop of finance and industry; adapted for film and TV.

Corporate powerFamily rise and fallEconomic society
Adaptations
  • [Film] The Noble Family (film)
  • [TV drama] The Noble Family (TV drama)

Fumō Chitai (Sterile Zone)

1976 Novel (postwar history / economic)

A long novel set against postwar history including Siberian internment.

Effects of warReconstruction and corporations

Two Homelands

1983 Novel (immigration / ethnic issues)

A work about the struggles of Nisei Japanese Americans; served as a source for an NHK Taiga drama.

IdentityImmigrant struggles
Adaptations
  • [TV (basis for NHK Taiga drama)] Sanga Moyu (based on the novel)

Children of the Earth

1991 Novel (war / human drama)

A long novel focusing on Japanese children left behind in China; part of the author's war trilogy.

War orphansReturn and recovery
Adaptations
  • [TV special] Children of the Earth (TV special)

The Sun That Never Sets / Sun That Won't Set

1999 Novel (corporate expose / social criticism)

A long novel dealing with corruption within Japan Airlines and the 123 crash, creating significant impact.

Corporate corruptionLabor and responsibility
Adaptations
  • [Film] The Sun That Never Sets (film)
  • [TV drama] The Sun That Never Sets (drama)

Fated Person

2009 Novel (social / historical)

A long novel modeled on the Nishiyama Incident; serialized from 2005 to 2009.

Power and responsibilityHistorical scrutiny

Sea of Promises

2014 Novel (posthumous / final work)

A posthumous final work; serialized briefly in 2013 but left incomplete and published after her death.

Posthumous workLife reflection

Bibliography

  • Noren (1957)
  • Noren of Flowers (1958)
  • Bonchi (1959)
  • The Honor of Women (1961)
  • Matriarchal Family (1963)
  • The White Tower (1965-1969)
  • The Noble Family (1973)
  • Fumō Chitai (1976-1978)
  • Two Homelands (1983)
  • Children of the Earth (1991)
  • The Sun That Never Sets (1999)
  • Fated Person (2009)
  • Sea of Promises (2014)

Adaptations

  • Many works adapted into films and TV dramas (multiple adaptations for The White Tower, The Noble Family, etc.)

Translations of Works

  • The White Tower — example English title
  • The Sun That Never Sets — example English title

Style & Themes

Literary Style
Extensive reporting-based social long-form novelsA style that interweaves fact and fiction
Recurring Motifs
War and humanityCorporations and powerRise and fall of familiesInside the medical world

Health

  • Respiratory failure
    2013年9月
    Hospitalized and died of respiratory failure on 29 September 2013.

Legacy

Over a long career she published many socially engaged long novels, many adapted for screen. She founded the Toyoko Yamasaki Cultural Foundation supporting war orphans from China, and despite controversies over plagiarism, she is regarded as one of postwar Japan's representative social novelists.

Museums

  • Toyoko Yamasaki Memorial Exhibition (Takashimaya Nihonbashi) Nihonbashi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo (Takashimaya) Opened in 2015

Academic Societies

  • Japan Writers Association

Archives

  • Materials held by Toyoko Yamasaki Cultural Foundation
  • Shinchosha archives (collected works)

In Popular Culture

  • Numerous TV dramas and films adapted from her works (e.g., The White Tower, The Noble Family, The Sun That Never Sets)

Quotes

  • Entertainers may retire, but artists do not; a writer keeps writing until they are carried in a coffin.
    Source: Saito Juichi, editor at Shinchosha (remark to Yamasaki)
  • This cruelty, this devastation, war must never be allowed.
    Source: Toyoko Yamasaki, wartime diary (1945) (1945)

Trivia

  • Birth name: Sugimoto Toyoko.
  • Her family ran a long-established kelp shop, Oguraya Yamamoto.
  • She established the Toyoko Yamasaki Cultural Foundation in 1993 to support Japanese war orphans in China.
  • In 1968 she returned an award amid plagiarism allegations concerning the novel Kaen.