Jirō Asada
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Jiro Asada (浅田 次郎 : あさだ じろう?) is the pen name of 'Kojiro Iwato' (岩戸 康次郎 : いわと こうじろう)(born December 13 1951, Tokyo).
Inspired by Yukio Mishima, who tried to stage a coup d'etat among Japan Self-Defense Forces then committed suicide after the coup was failed, Asada enlisted in the Japan Self-Defense Forces after finishing his studies. After that, he changed his job many times while endeavouring to find opportunites for new writers, such as submitting his works to literary competitions. Under such circumstances, in 1991, he was acknowledged to public by his novel Torarete tamaruka! (とられてたまるか!) thereby starting his professional literary career. After writing several picaresque novels, his novel Metro ni notte (地下鉄に乗って) was awarded the Yoshikawa Eiji Prize for New Writers, then poppoya (鉄道員) was awarded the Naoki Prize. He writes not only standard fiction and picaresque novels, but also writes historical and Chinese historical novels such as Soukyuu no subaru (蒼穹の昴). He is recognized as one of the typical authors that inherited the traditional style of Japanese popular fiction novel.
[edit] Career
Asada was born in Tokyo metropolitan city, Japan, on 13th of December, in 1951. One of his ancestors was a samurai that belonged to Tokugawa shogunate. After graduating from the Komaba toho junior-high school and the Suginami high school attached to the Chuo university, he enlisted in the Japan Self-Defense Forces because he was yearning after Yukio Mishima although he initially denied this.
His novels often depict Japanese gangsters and it has been said that in this respect, they are autobiogrtaphical - Asada has admitted that he was once a semi-constituent member (a "kigyo shatei" (企業舎弟)) of a gangster organization, specifically someone who runs businesses to raise funds for organised crime. Asada was connected to a "Nezumi kou" (a pyramid scheme fraud). However, Asada has denied ever having been an exact constituent member of a gangster organization.
Further, there was a period when he was living on money earned from horse race gambling, and thus he has written many essays related to horse racing.
In 1991, Asada became well known for his novel Torarete tamaruka! (とられてたまるか!). This novel was the first work for him which passed through a preliminary selection of a literary prize for new writers, and his pen name was taken after this novel's protagonist. This novel could not win the prize eventually, but the fact that it had passed through the preliminary selection made him excited, which is why he chose this protagonist's name as his pen name.
Because of the tendency towards picaresque novelistic style in his works at this first stage, Asada has often been described as a picaresque novel writer. However, after winning the Yoshikawa Eiji Prize for New Writers for Metro ni notte (地下鉄に乗って) in 1995, his style and range of writing has been changed and expanded dramatically for example his historical novel Soukyuu no subaru (蒼穹の昴), which described vividly the last stages of the Qing dynasty was nominated for the Naoki prize of 1996, then next year, his human novel poppoya (鉄道員) won the Naoki prize.
[edit] Style of Works
Asada claims that his ancestor was a samurai who belonged to former Tokugawa shogunate side (according to an article in Yomiuri Shinbun 16 October 1996). Due to this, he wrote some works concerning to samurai such as Mibu Gishi Den (壬生義士伝) based on the story of Shinsen Gumi (新撰組) and Ohara meshi mase (お腹召しませ) etc. He describes himself as Syousetu no taisyuu syokudou (小説の大衆食堂) meaning that he is a cheap public restaurant of novel, more particularly meaning that he will deliver any kind or topic of novels that the public wants. He also says that writing is the best hobby for him, consequently he has written more than 70 works in his 14 years of novelist activity, and is still eager to publish new novels to date. Further, concerning to his modern novels, Asada is nicknamed as "Heisei no nakase ya" (平成の泣かせ屋) meaning that he is quite good at moving the readers to tears within the writers existing in current era of Heisei, Japan. The novelistic style filled with plenty of humanity and human feelings is characteristic of his works.
Asada acknowledges that he is a heavy smoker, and asserted the rights of the smoker in an article "About the rights of smoker" in an essay "Yuuki rin-rin ruri no iro" (勇気凛凛ルリの色). Further, every kind of gambling is his hobby, in addition to the horse racing as mentioned above, so there are such essays related to gambling as "Oh my Gah!" (オー・マイ・ガアッ!) and "Cassino!" (カッシーノ!) etc.
[edit] History of Awards
- 1995 - 16th Yoshikawa Eiji Prize for New Writers for Metro ni notte (地下鉄に乗って).
- 1997 - 16th Japanese adventure fiction association special prize for Poppoya (鉄道員), and 117th Naoki prize for the same.
- 2000 - Shibata renzaburo prize for Mibu Gishi Den (壬生義士伝) and best dresser prize of Japan.
- 2006 - 1st Chuo Koron literature prize for Ohara meshi mase (お腹召しませ) and 10th Shiba Ryotaro prize.
