Japanese Literary Awards

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Shincho Newcomer Award しんちょうしんじんしょう

Edition 55 (2023)

Pure literatureFiction

Winners

2 people
Setsuna Ira いら せつな award

Keiichi Hayami, a second-year high school student in the art club, is captivated by the beauty of his classmate Tsukasa Hojo and begins painting his portrait. As the two grow closer, an event during summer vacation shatters Keiichi, leaving his longing for beauty and teenage despair in turmoil.

A portrait painted by a boy drawn to beauty unsettles the boundary between friendship and love.

176 pages
beautyportraitureadolescenceloveartdespair
Rikako Akamatsu あかまつ りかこ award

Set in present-day Setagaya, Tokyo, this story follows Arichai, a woman raised as a shaman in South America by her mother, a tribal chief, as she begins to question her own origins. Through her encounter with a man known as the Bomb Man by a riverbank, another realm crossing the boundaries of spirits, humans, and animals appears within an everyday city.

Crossing the boundaries of spirits, humans, and animals, a magical otherworld appears in the heart of Tokyo.

160 pages
shamanismspiritsSetagaya, Tokyopersonal originsotherworldboundary between humans and animals