Akiyuki Nosaka, Japanese novelist, Died at 85

  Writers

Akiyuki Nosaka was born on October 10, 1930, and died on December 9, 2015.

He 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.

Akiyuki was born in Kamakura, Kanagawa, the son of Sukeyuki Nosaka, who was a sub-governor of Niigata.

Together with his sisters, Akiyuki grew up as an adopted child of Harimaya in Nada, Kobe, Hyogo.

One of his sisters died as the result of sickness, and his adoptive father died during the 1945 bombing of Kobe in World War II.

Another sister died of malnutrition in Fukui. Akiyuki would later base his short story Grave of the Fireflies on these experiences.

Akiyuki is well-known for children’s stories about war.

His Grave of the Fireflies and American Hijiki won the Naoki Prize in 1967.

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, Akiyuki was credited for giving a former rugby player-turned pro wrestler Susumu Hara his ring name, Ashura Hara.

He was elected to the Japanese Diet in 1983.

Akiyuki suffered a stroke in 2003 and although still affected by it, he kept writing a column for the daily Mainichi Shimbun.

Akiyuki Nosaka passed away at age 85 in December 2015.