Saiichi Maruya

was a Japanese author and literary critic.

Biography Maruya, whose real name was Saiichi Nemura, was born in Tsuruoka city, Yamagata Prefecture on August 27, 1925. His father was a doctor, and apparently wealthy enough to have a big personal library, which whetted Maruya's literary appetite.

Maruya was mobilized into the Japanese Army in March 1945 when still a high school student, but did not see battlefield action as Japan surrendered shortly thereafter. in collaboration with Takamatsu Yūichi and Nagai Reiji (1964) and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man in 1969. James Joyce's works became a major influence on his writing. After completing his degree, he taught English literature at Kokugakuin University and then at the University of Tokyo. During this time, he wrote several novels, including Ehoba no kao o sakete (エホバ の 顔 を さけて, 1958), Kanata e (彼方 へ, 1962), and Sasamakura (笹まくら, Grass for My Pillow, 1966).

Maruya was also an influential literary critic, publishing reviews in the magazine Shukan Asahi and in the Mainichi Shimbun.

Maruya received the Order of Culture. After that, they posed for the photo. (at the East Garden of the Tokyo Imperial Palace on November 3, 2011)

Awards In 1968 Maruya won the Akutagawa Prize for Toshi no nokori (年 の 残り, The Rest of the Year). In 1972 he published Tatta hitori no hanran (たった ひとり の 反乱, Singular Rebellion), for which he won the Tanizaki Prize. He also received the Kawabata Prize, the Kikuchi Kan Prize for Cultural Merit and the Noma Literary Prize (1985), and the Order of Culture, awarded in 2011 by the Emperor of Japan.

Selected works in translation