Japanese Literary Awards

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Hayakawa Mystery Contest

はやかわ・みすてり・こんてすと

Public new writer award for short mystery fiction hosted by Hayakawa Publishing

Mystery FictionShort Story
Established
1990
Organizer
Hayakawa Publishing
Category
Genre Fiction
Selection Method
Open call
Target
Newcomer
Frequency
1 per year
Status
Ended

Description

Public new writer award for short mystery fiction solicited in Mystery Magazine, held a total of 3 times from 1990 to 1992.

Prize

Main Prize
Publication of winning entry in Mystery Magazine
  • Publication of honorable mentions

Selection

Selection Process

Final Selection
Judges Michio Tsuzuki, Machiko Koike

Related Awards

  • Agatha Christie Award
  • Hayakawa SF Contest

Past Winners

山田風見子 やまだ かざみこ best award

Bury the Blues by 山田風見子 is a Japanese mystery story. 音楽の気配をまとった題名が示すように、喪失と事件の余韻を重ねるミステリ作品。短い形式のなかで、人物の過去と現在が暗い響きをもって交差する。

Bury the Blues distills the author's eye and style into a compact work.

literary stylememoryplace
Hone Fukabori ふかほり こつ honorable mention

Earthworms, Babies, or the Sugar-Water Swamp by 深堀骨 is a Japanese mystery story. 異様な題名が示す不穏さを手がかりに、日常からずれた感覚と奇妙な事件性を結びつける作品。幻想とミステリの境界にある湿った読後感が特徴である。

Earthworms, Babies, or the Sugar-Water Swamp distills the author's eye and style into a compact work.

literary stylememoryplace
山崎秀雄 やまざき ひでお best award

Tonari ni Ryoshin Ariki is Hideo Yamazaki's grand-prize work for the Hayakawa Mystery Contest. Its title points to neighborly relations and moral instability, suggesting criminality close to ordinary life.

From the close words neighbor and conscience, the work raises the atmosphere of mystery hidden inside daily life.

mysteryneighborconscienceunease in daily life
小熊文彦 おぐま ふみひこ best award

A fanciful mystery in which a commuting office worker dies on the Yamanote Line and is held up in the afterlife. The premise that he cannot move on until someone in the living world recognizes his death turns city routine and loneliness into dark irony.

In a city where no one notices his death, even the gates of heaven are kept waiting.

222 pages
mysteryafterlifeurban lifeloneliness
武宮閣之 たけみや かつし honorable mention

A short mystery with a fantastic mood built around moonlight. Confirmed as a magazine-published work, it is described as combining the image of a beauty seen in moonlight with a mystery device.

Under moonlight, the image of a woman looking back rises with an air of mystery.

short mysteryfantasymoonlightmagazine publication