Akiko Itoyama


Akiko Itoyama is a Japanese novelist. She has won the Akutagawa Prize, the Kawabata Yasunari Prize, and the Tanizaki Prize, and her work has been adapted for film.

Biography

After graduation from Shinjuku High School and Waseda University, she worked as a saleswoman for a major household equipment company and, as is common in Japanese corporate life, was transferred several times to various localities. Treatment for cyclic psychosis led to her writing.
Her works, which focus on human relations, have been nominated for and received literary awards. She was recipient of the 96th Bungakukai New Face Award and a nominee for the 129th Akutagawa Prize for her first volume, It's Only Talk, in 2003. The book was later adapted into the 2005 Ryūichi Hiroki film It's Only Talk. Itoyama won the Akutagawa Prize in January 2006 for her short story "Oki de matsu". An English translation of her "Oki de matsu" appeared in the April 2007 issue of Words Without Borders under the title "Waiting in the Offing." Her book ' was adapted into a 2007 film starring Minami Hinase. An English version of the book, translated by Charles de Wolf, was published in 2013 under the title In Pursuit of Lavender.
An English translation of It's Only Talk was published by The Japan Times in March 2009. In 2010 her novel ' was adapted into a film by Shusuke Kaneko. In 2016 Itoyama won the 52nd Tanizaki Prize for her 2015 book .
She has been praised for her ability to describe provincial scenery and represent regional accents and dialects, reflecting the characters' image, even though she was brought up in Tokyo. She explains that she learned them through repeated company transfers all over Japan.

Recognition