Hisashi Inoue

Infobox Writer
name = Inoue Hisashi

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caption = Inoue Hisashi
birthdate = Birth date and age|1934|11|16|df=y
birthplace = Kawanishi, Yamagata, Japan
deathdate =
deathplace =
occupation = writer
genre = novels, stage plays
movement =
notableworks =
influences =
influenced = nihongo|Inoue Hisashi|井上ひさし|Inoue Hisashi|extra= 16 November 1934 - is a leading Japanese playwright and writer of comic fiction.

Biography

Inoue was born in the small town of Kawanishi in Yamagata Prefecture. He lost his father when he was 4 years old and was subsequently sent off to a Lasallian home for children where he received a Christian baptism. He graduated from Sophia University.

After an initial career in radio, he wrote his first stage play "Nihonjin no Heso" in 1969 for Theatre Echo. He first gained literary recognition for his satirical comic plays in the tradition of the Edo period "Gesaku" genre.

Inoue has won a very large number of literary awards in the course of his career, including the 67th Naoki Prize in 1972 for his novel "Tegusari Shinju" ("Handcuffed Double Suicide"). He followed on this success in 1981 with "Kirikirijin" ("The People of Kirikiri"), which was awarded both the Yomiuri Literary Prize and the 2nd Japan Science Fiction Award.

In 1984, he established his own theatre troupe, called "Komatsuza", to perform his own plays. These include biographical works on Meiji period writers Ishikawa Takuboku and Higuchi Ichiyo, whom he had long admired. In 1988, he completed a comic trilogy: "Kirameku seiza, Yami ni saku hana, Yuki ya kon kon", depicting the lives of ordinary people in the Showa period.

Despite his activity with the theatre, Inoue continues to write, winning the 1982 Seiun Award for Best Novel for "Kirikirijin", the Yoshikawa Eiji Literary Prize for "Treasury of Disloyal Retainers" in 1986, the 27th Tanizaki Prize for "Shanghai Moon" in 1991, and the Kikuchi Kan Literary Award for "Tokyo Seven Roses" in 1999.

In 1984, the Writer's Block Library was opened in Kawanishimachi, Yamagata prefecture, thanks to Inoue's donation of his 100,000 volume book collection.

Inoue served as president of the Japan P.E.N. Club from 2003 to 2007. "Chichi to kuraseba", has been translated into the English language by Roger Pulvers under the title "The Face of Jizo".

Since 1989, he has lived in Kamakura, Kanagawa.

Selected works

* "Ame" (雨), 1976.
* "Buraun kangoku no shiki" (ブラウン 監獄 の 四季), Tōkyō : Kōdansha, 1977.
* "Jūninin no tegami" (十二人 の 手紙), Tōkyō : Chūō Kōronsha, 1978.
* "Tanin no chi" (他人 の 血), Tōkyō : Kōdansha, 1979.
* "Seibo no dōkeshi, 1981.
* "Shikaban Nihongo bunpō" (私家版 日本語 文法), Tokyo : Shinchōsha, 1981.
* "Hon no makura no sōshi", Tōkyō : Bungei Shunjū, 1982.
* "Kotoba o yomu", Tōkyō : Chūō Kōronsha, 1982.
* "Shichinin no sakkatachi : intabyū-shū" (七人 の 作家たち : インタビュー集), Tōkyō : Doyō Bijutsusha, 1983.
* "Moto no mokuami", Tōkyō : Bungei Shunjū, 1983.
* "Nippon hakubutsushi", Tōkyō : Asahi Shinbunsha, 1983.
* "Inoue Hisashi zen shibai", Tōkyō : Shinchōsha, 1984.
* "Jikasei bunshō-dokuhon" (自家製 文章読本), Tōkyō : Shinchōsha, 1984.
* "Fu Chūshingura" (不 忠臣蔵), Tōkyō : Shūeisha, 1985.
* "Kuni yutaka ni shite gi o wasure" (国 ゆたか に して 義 を 忘れ), Tōkyō : Kadokawa Shoten, 1985.
* "Fukkoki" (腹鼓記), Tōkyō : Shinchōsha, 1985.
* "Yonsenmanpo no otoko. Ezo hen" (四千万步 の 男. 蝦夷 篇 ), Tōkyō : Kōdansha, 1986.
* "Yonsenmanpo no otoko. Izu hen" (四千万步 の 男. 伊豆 篇 ), Tōkyō : Kōdansha, 1989.
* "Shanhai mūn", (シャンハイ ムーン), Tōkyō : Shūeisha, 1991.
* "Nihongo nikki" (ニホン語 日記), Tōkyō : Bungei shunjū, 1993.
* "Besuto serā no sengoshi" (ベスト セラー の 戦後史), Tōkyō : Bungei Shunjū, 1995.
* "Hon no unmei" (本 の 運命), Tōkyō : Bungei Shunjū, 1997.
* "Yonsenmanpo no otoko, Chūkei no ikikata" (四千万步 の 男・忠敬 の 生き方), Tōkyō : Kōdansha, 2003.

External links

* [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,921346,00.html Time Magazine article from August 1 1983]
* [http://www.komatsuza.co.jp/hisashi_pro.html Home page of Komatsuza Theater Company (Japanese)]