Sayaka Murata

Sayaka Murata (村田沙耶香 Murata Sayaka; born August 14, 1979) is a Japanese writer. She has won the Gunzo Prize for New Writers, the Mishima Yukio Prize, the Noma Literary New Face Prize, and the Akutagawa Prize.

Sayaka Murata
Native name
村田沙耶香
Born (1979-08-14) August 14, 1979
OccupationNovelist, convenience store clerk
LanguageJapanese
Alma materTamagawa University
GenreFiction
Notable works
  • Gin iro no uta (ギンイロノウタ)
  • Shiro-iro no machi no, sono hone no taion no (しろいろの街の、その骨の体温の)
  • Konbini ningen (コンビニ人間)
Notable awards

Biography

Murata was born in Inzai, Chiba Prefecture, Japan, in 1979. As a child she often read science fiction and mystery novels borrowed from her brother and mother, and her mother bought her a word processor after she attempted to write a novel by hand in the fourth grade of elementary school.[1] After Murata completed middle school in Inzai, her family moved to Tokyo, where she graduated from Kashiwa High School (attached to Nishogakusha University) and attended Tamagawa University.[2]

Kashiwa High School

Her first novel, Jyunyū (Breastfeeding), won the 2003 Gunzo Prize for New Writers.[3] In 2013 she won the Mishima Yukio Prize for Shiro-iro no machi no, sono hone no taion no (Of Bones, Of Body Heat, of Whitening City), and in 2014 the Special Prize of the Sense of Gender Award.[4][5] In 2016 her 10th novel, Konbini ningen (Convenience Store Person), won the prestigious Akutagawa Prize,[6] and she was named one of Vogue Japan's Women of the Year.[7] Konbini ningen has sold over 600,000 copies in Japan, and in 2018 it became her first book to be translated into English, under the title Convenience Store Woman.[8]

Throughout her writing career Murata has worked part-time as a convenience store clerk in Tokyo.[9]

Writing style

Murata's writing explores the different consequences of nonconformity in society for men and women, particularly with regard to gender roles, parenthood, and sex.[10] Many of the themes and character backstories in her writing come from her daily observations as a part-time convenience store worker.[9] Societal acceptance of sexlessness in various forms, including asexuality, voluntary and involuntary celibacy, especially within marriage, recurs as a theme in several of her works, such as the novels Shōmetsu sekai (Dwindling World) and Konbini ningen (Convenience Store Person), and the short story "A Clean Marriage."[11][12] Murata is also known for her frank depictions of adolescent sexuality in work such as Gin iro no uta (Silver Song)[13] and Shiro-iro no machi no, sono hone no taion no (Of Bones, of Body Heat, of Whitening City).[14] In Satsujin shussan she depicts a future society which may be seen as dystopic for the use of Reproduction Technologies and the strange system called Birth-Murder System.[4]

Recognition
Year Prize Title Notes
2003 Gunzo Prize for New Writers[3] Jyunyū (授乳) Won
2009 Mishima Yukio Prize[5] Gin iro no uta (ギンイロノウタ) Nominated
2009 Noma Literary New Face Prize[15] Gin iro no uta (ギンイロノウタ) Won
2010 Mishima Yukio Prize[5] Hoshi ga sū mizu (星が吸う水) Nominated
2012 Mishima Yukio Prize[5] Tadaima tobira (タダイマトビラ) Nominated
2013 Mishima Yukio Prize[5] Shiro-iro no machi no, sono hone no taion no (しろいろの街の、その骨の体温の) Won
2014 Sense of Gender Awards[16] Satsujin shussan (殺人出産) Won
2016 Akutagawa Prize[6] Konbini ningen (コンビニ人間) Won

Bibliography

Books in Japanese
  • Jyunyū (Breastfeeding) Kodansha, 2005, ISBN 9784062127943
  • Gin iro no uta (Silver Song), Shinchosha, 2009, ISBN 9784103100713
  • Mausu (Mouse), Kodansha, 2008, ISBN 9784062145893
  • Hoshi ga sū mizu (Water for the Stars), Kodansha, 2010, ISBN 9784062160971
  • Hakobune (Ark), Shueisha, 2011, ISBN 9784087714289
  • Shiro-iro no machi no, sono hone no taion no (Of Bones, Of Body Heat, Of Whitening City), Asahi Shimbun, 2012, ISBN 9784022510112
  • Tadaima tobira, Shinchosha, 2012, ISBN 9784103100720
  • Satsujin shussan (The Murder Births), Kodansha, 2014, ISBN 9784062190466
  • Shōmetsu sekai (Dwindling World), Kawade Shobo Shinsha, 2015, ISBN 9784309024325
  • Konbini ningen (Convenience Store Person), Bungeishunju, 2016, ISBN 9784163906188

Translated works
  • Lover on the Breeze (short story), English translation by Ginny Tapley Takemori, Ruptured Fiction(s) of the Earthquake, 2011.[17]
  • A Clean Marriage (short story), English translation by Ginny Tapley Takemori, Granta 127: Japan, 2014.[18]
  • Convenience Store Woman, English translation of Konbini ningen by Ginny Tapley Takemori, Grove Atlantic, 2018, ISBN 9780802128256[19]
  • Earthlings, English translation by Ginny Tapley Takemori, Granta Books, 2020[20]

References
  1. "村田沙耶香インタビュー「バイトは週3日、週末はダメ人間です」". Bungeishunjū (in Japanese). August 20, 2017. Retrieved June 14, 2018.
  2. "印西出身の村田沙耶香さん 入学時文集「いつか理想の自分に」 二松学舎大学付属柏高、母校も喜びに沸く ／千葉". Mainichi (in Japanese). July 21, 2016. Retrieved June 14, 2018.
  3. "Gunzo Awards". Gunzo (in Japanese). Retrieved June 14, 2018.
  4. Specchio, Anna (2018-07-05). "Eutopizing the Dystopia. Gender Roles, Motherhood and Reproduction in Murata Sayaka's "Satsujin Shussan"". Metacritic Journal for Comparative Studies and Theory. 4 (1): 94–108. doi:10.24193/mjcst.2018.5.06. ISSN 2457-8827.
  5. "Mishima Yukio Prize (Official Website)".
  6. Kikuchi, Daisuke (July 20, 2016). "Convenience store worker who moonlights as an author wins prestigious Akutagawa Prize". The Japan Times. Retrieved April 8, 2018.
  7. "高畑充希、飛躍の一年を回顧「台風の目にいるような感じ」". Oricon News. Nov 24, 2016. Retrieved Feb 12, 2018.
  8. Freeman, John. "In Praise of Sayaka Murata". Literary Hub. Retrieved June 14, 2018.
  9. Lewis, Leo (June 8, 2018). "Sayaka Murata: 'My parents don't want to read my books'". Financial Times (subscription required). Retrieved June 14, 2018.
  10. Rich, Motoko (June 11, 2018). "For Japanese Novelist Sayaka Murata, Odd Is the New Normal". The New York Times. Retrieved June 14, 2018.
  11. Fallon, Claire (June 12, 2018). "Amid All The Talk Of Incels, A Solitary Woman's Story". HuffPost. Retrieved June 13, 2018.
  12. Tapley Takamori, Ginny (April 24, 2014). "Translator's Note: A Clean Marriage". Granta. Retrieved June 14, 2018.
  13. "Silver Song". Books from Japan. Retrieved June 14, 2018.
  14. "Of Bones, of Body Heat, of Whitening City". Books from Japan. Retrieved June 14, 2018.
  15. "過去の受賞作品". Kodansha (in Japanese). Retrieved June 21, 2018.
  16. "2014年度 第14回Sense of Gender賞". The Japanese Association for Gender Fantasy and Science Fiction (in Japanese). August 29, 2015. Retrieved June 21, 2018.
  17. Murata, Sayaka (11 September 2011). "Lover on the Breeze" (PDF). Retrieved 7 August 2019.
  18. Murata, Sayaka (24 April 2014). "A Clean Marriage". Granta. Retrieved 14 June 2018.
  19. "Convenience Store Woman". Grove Atlantic. Retrieved 6 June 2018.
  20. "Granta buys new Sayaka Murata novel". thebookseller.com. 31 January 2019. Retrieved 7 August 2019.
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