Ryu Mitsuse


Ryū Mitsuse was a Japanese novelist, science fiction writer, alternate history writer, historical novelist, and essayist. Mitsuse is the author of Hyakuoku no Hiru to Sen'oku no Yoru. Among his various works, this SF novel is considered as his representative work. Mitsuse is a founder member and was a member of the SFWJ. In the West he might be best known for manga-related works and the story The Sunset, 2217 A.D. which appeared in Frederik Pohl's "Best Science Fiction for 1972".

Biography

Birth and Age of student

Mitsuse was born at Minami-Senju, Kita-Toshima District, Tokyo Prefecture in 1928. His birth name was Kimio Chiba. The eldest son of Kizō Chiba and Kiyo. There were three elder sisters.
In around June, 1945, he evacuated to Iwate prefecture, which was his parents' homeland, from Tokyo. He transferred to kyūsei Ichinose middle school. In 1948, he graduated from this middle school and entered the Toyo University in Tokyo. But he dropped out, and entered the Meiji University. But he again dropped out in short period. He transferred to Kawamura high school and graduated from this school. In 1949, Mitsuse entered the department of Agriculture of the Tokyo University of Education. In 1950, he transferred to the department of Science, zoology course, and graduated from this university in 1953.
In 1954, Mitsuse again entered the department of literature, philosophy course, in Tokyo University of Education, which he did not graduate from. During this period in Tokyo, he was engaging in literary coterie activities.

Marriage

In 1955, Mitsuse proposed marriage to Chitose Iizuka, but her father opposed this proposal and rejected their marriage. Mitsuse could not marry. In 1957, Mitsuse became a tutor of Koganai high school of Tokyo prefecture. And next year, he obtained a stable job as a high school teacher of biology and earth science.
In 1959, Mitsuse again proposed marriage. He talked to the father of Chitose that he would take the "surname Iizuka". Thus he was allowed to marry with Chitose, and Mitsuse became Kimio Iizuka.

Becoming a novelist

Before his marriage, Mitsuse joined "Kagaku Sōsaku Club" where Takumi Shibano was operating as a publisher and an editor of the coterie magazine "Uchū-jin" in 1957. He started publishing various short novels in under the pen-name Mitsuse Ryū. He published first long novel "Hakengun Kaeru" in Uchūjin.
As an SF novelist, he created the Space Chronicles series. His early long SF novel Tasogare ni Kaeru belongs to this series. Most of his short SF stories constitute this series. Rakuyō 2217 nen is one of these stories.

Works

In Japanese science fiction he might be better known for the novel Ten Billion Days and One Hundred Billion Nights, which combines interest in technology and the Buddha. It was ranked the top of the Japanese SF novels in a 2006 poll by the SF Magazine. Ten Billion Days and a Hundred Billion Nights was adapted into a manga by Moto Hagio in the late 1970s.

Long Novels

Short novels