Japanese Literary Awards

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Yu Literary Award ゆうぶんがくしょう

Edition 4 (2009)

KaidanOpen callNewcomer literary award

Winners

4 people
大門剛明 honorable mention

A historical ghost story based on the Tako Jizo legend of Kishiwada, set against the land and faith of the Warring States period. It is confirmed as an honorable mention in the long-form division of the fourth Yu Ghost Story Literary Award.

The Tako Jizo legend is linked to the uncanny faith and landscape of the Warring States period.

ghost storyhistorical fictionTako Jizolegend
白石かおる grand prize

A ghost story told in the first person by a woman living in an old Kyoto house, depicting an uncanny family hidden in the home and the guilt of the past. The Kyoto dialect and domestic texture slowly build unease.

From within Kyoto speech, things living in the house and the sins of the past begin to seep out.

253 pages
ghost storyKyotohouseguilt

Originally awarded as Sumika and later retitled Fujiko, this ghost story became the title work of Fujiko: Island Ghost Stories. It begins when a traveler impulsively buys a guesthouse and gradually reveals strange ties among place and people.

A guesthouse acquired on a trip draws in the fates of land and people.

240 pages
ghost storyislandguesthousefateful ties
石居椎 honorable mention

A short story collected in an anthology of ghost stories about houses and places. It links memories of reed fields with the sense that ordinary deaths repeat like a dance.

In the memory of a reed field, the presence of ordinary death begins to dance.

ghost storyhousememory of placedeath