Akiyuki Nosaka


Akiyuki Nosaka was a Japanese novelist, singer, lyricist, and member of the House of Councillors. As a broadcasting writer he used the name Yukio Aki and his alias as a chanson singer was Claude Nosaka.

Biography

Nosaka was born in Kamakura, Kanagawa, the son of Sukeyuki Nosaka, who was a sub-governor of Niigata. Together with his sisters he grew up as an adopted child of a Harimaya family in Nada, Kobe, Hyōgo. Nosaka is part of the "Generation of the Ashes", which includes other writers like Oe Kenzaburo and Oda Makoto.
One of his sisters died as the result of malnutrition, and his adoptive father died during the 1945 bombing of Kobe in World War II. Another sister died of malnutrition in Fukui. Nosaka would later base his short story Grave of the Fireflies on these experiences. He is well known for children's stories about war. His Grave of the Fireflies and American Hijiki won the 58th Naoki Prize.
His novel, The Pornographers, was translated into English by Michael Gallagher and published in 1968. It was also filmed as The Pornographers by Shohei Imamura. In December 1978, he was credited for giving former rugby player-turned pro wrestler Susumu Hara his ring name, Ashura Hara.
He was elected to the Japanese Diet in 1983. Nosaka suffered a stroke in 2003 and although still affected by it, he kept writing a column for the daily Mainichi Shimbun.
On NHK's December 10, 2015 7:00 pm broadcast announcing Nosaka's death, a veteran journalist was quoted as saying Nosaka was notable for questioning what most people consider common sense, but Japan has now entered an era in which this is no longer possible.

Works