Konno Kigyojo is a novel about a family running a small textile workshop on the Hokuriku coast. Through a calm, almost oral narrative, it layers local faith, seasonal customs, and family memory over a long span of time.

A novel that illuminates a century of place and family through the daily life of a small textile workshop.

Izumo no Okuni is a large-scale historical novel about the woman regarded as the founder of kabuki. It fills the gaps in the historical record with fictional imagination and gives vivid form to a woman whose life is bound to dance.

A sweeping novel that gives life to a historical mystery through Okuni’s dancing body.

Kigeki Ippatsu Daihissho is a film in Yoji Yamada’s “Ippatsu” series starring Hajime Hana. It brings black humor and social satire into a popular human comedy format.

A film that wears the face of human comedy while hiding sharp satirical humor.

Suisen Ichikawa’s “Hotaru” was recognized for the maturity of her dance and stage acting. Restrained movement and inner dramatic expression connected classical form with a contemporary audience.

A stage work where assured form meets delicate feeling.

Nikikai’s performances of Das Rheingold, Die Fledermaus, and The Magic Flute were recognized collectively as operatic achievements. The productions helped raise the standard of opera performance in Japan across very different repertories.

A set of opera productions that showed the breadth of stage performance in Japan.

Masato Otaka’s Tochigi Prefectural Assembly Hall is an architectural work that gave form to the public character of postwar Japanese architecture. Its design links structure, circulation, and civic landscape.

A legislative building that thinks through public architecture in relation to structure and city.

Kamaitachi is Eikoh Hosoe’s photobook of dancer Tatsumi Hijikata, photographed in rural Akita and elsewhere. Hijikata’s body, the Tohoku landscape, and Hosoe’s memory intersect in a highly subjective, narrative mode of postwar photography.

A photobook that imprints Tohoku landscape and memory through Tatsumi Hijikata’s body.

Michio Sakurama’s Nonomiya was a Noh performance that condensed his technical command and interpretive depth as a Kanze-school actor. It brought the yugen world derived from The Tale of Genji to the stage through firm form and deep feeling.

A Noh performance that evokes the afterglow of The Tale of Genji through form and atmosphere.

Hiroshi Kono’s writings on “Nagai Saka” and “Futei to iu Koto” were recognized as criticism in film and theatre. Through close attention to the works, they examined contemporary questions in screen and stage expression.

Critical work that deepened understanding of film and theatre in its own moment.

Oka Onitaro Den is a biography of the theatre critic Oka Onitaro. By following the life of a critic who observed kabuki and modern theatre, it evokes the memory of the Japanese stage from the Meiji period into the Showa era.

A biography that illuminates modern Japanese theatre through a critic’s life.