Sakyo Komatsu
Encyclopedia
was a Japanese
science fiction
writer and screenwriter. He was one of the most well known and highly regarded science fiction writers in Japan.
, he was a graduate of Kyoto University
where he studied Italian literature
. After graduating, he worked at various jobs, including as a magazine reporter and a writer for stand-up comedy acts.
and Italian classics made Komatsu feel modern literature and science fiction are the same.
In 1961, he entered a science-fiction writing competition: "Peace on Earth" was a story in which World War II
does not end in 1945 and a young man prepares to defend Japan against the Allied invasion. Komatsu received an honourable mention and 5000 yen.
He won the same competition the following year with the story, "Memoirs of an Eccentric Time Traveller". His first novel, The Japanese Apache, was published two years later and sold 50,000 copies.
In the West he is best known for the novels Japan Sinks
(1973) and Sayonara Jupiter
(1982). Both were adapted to film, Tidal Wave
(1973) and Bye Bye Jupiter
(1984). The story "The Savage Mouth" was translated by Judith Merril
and has been anthologized.
At the time of publication, his apocalyptic vision of a sunk Japan wiped out by shifts incurred through geographic stress" worried a Japan still haunted by the atomic devastation of Hiroshima
and Nagasaki
. He was inspired to write it thinking of what would happen if the nationalistic Japanese lost their land, and ironically prefigured the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
that triggered a nuclear plant disaster decades later on March 11, 2011 - the result of which he was interested in "to see how Japan would evolve" after the catastrophe.
Komatsu was involved in organizing the Japan World Exposition in Osaka Prefecture in 1970. In 1984, Komatsu served as a technical consultant for a live concert in Linz
, Austria
by Japanese electronic composer Isao Tomita
. He won the 1985 Nihon SF Taisho Award
. Komatsu was one of two Author Guests of Honor at Nippon 2007, the 65th World Science Fiction Convention
in 2007 in Yokohama
, Japan. This was the first Worldcon
to be held in Asia.
With Shin'ichi Hoshi and Yasutaka Tsutsui
, Komatsu was considered one of the masters of Japanese science fiction.
Reviews, talks, and essays
Manga
Film
TV programs
Japanese people
The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...
science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
writer and screenwriter. He was one of the most well known and highly regarded science fiction writers in Japan.
Early life
Born Minoru "Sakyo" Komatsu in OsakaOsaka
is a city in the Kansai region of Japan's main island of Honshu, a designated city under the Local Autonomy Law, the capital city of Osaka Prefecture and also the biggest part of Keihanshin area, which is represented by three major cities of Japan, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe...
, he was a graduate of Kyoto University
Kyoto University
, or is a national university located in Kyoto, Japan. It is the second oldest Japanese university, and formerly one of Japan's Imperial Universities.- History :...
where he studied Italian literature
Italian literature
Italian literature is literature written in the Italian language, particularly within Italy. It may also refer to literature written by Italians or in Italy in other languages spoken in Italy, often languages that are closely related to modern Italian....
. After graduating, he worked at various jobs, including as a magazine reporter and a writer for stand-up comedy acts.
Career
Komatsu's writing career began in the 1960s. Reading Kōbō AbeKobo Abe
, pseudonym of was a Japanese writer, playwright, photographer and inventor. Abe has been often compared to Franz Kafka and Alberto Moravia for his surreal, often nightmarish explorations of individuals in contemporary society and his modernist sensibilities....
and Italian classics made Komatsu feel modern literature and science fiction are the same.
In 1961, he entered a science-fiction writing competition: "Peace on Earth" was a story in which World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
does not end in 1945 and a young man prepares to defend Japan against the Allied invasion. Komatsu received an honourable mention and 5000 yen.
He won the same competition the following year with the story, "Memoirs of an Eccentric Time Traveller". His first novel, The Japanese Apache, was published two years later and sold 50,000 copies.
In the West he is best known for the novels Japan Sinks
Japan Sinks
is a 2006 Tokusatsu film directed by Shinji Higuchi, and a remake of the 1973 screenplay based on the Komatsu novel. It stars Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, Kou Shibasaki, Etsushi Toyokawa, and Mao Daichi, and was released on July 15, 2006....
(1973) and Sayonara Jupiter
Sayonara Jupiter
is a novel by Sakyo Komatsu, released as two volumes. Komatsu adapted the story into the script for the 1984 film of the same name, directed by Koji Hashimoto.-Film, TV or theatrical adaptations:...
(1982). Both were adapted to film, Tidal Wave
Nihon Chinbotsu (1973 film)
is a 1973 film directed by Shiro Moritani. It is based on the novel Japan Sinks by Sakyo Komatsu, published the same year. The film stars Lorne Greene, Keiju Kobayashi, Hiroshi Fujioka and Ayumi Ishida. A remake was released in 2006, Nihon Chinbotsu, loosely based on a second section of this...
(1973) and Bye Bye Jupiter
Sayonara Jupiter (film)
is a 1984 Japanese science fiction film directed by Koji Hashimoto and produced by Toho. The script was adapted by pioneering science-fiction author Sakyo Komatsu from his novel Sayonara Jupiter...
(1984). The story "The Savage Mouth" was translated by Judith Merril
Judith Merril
Judith Josephine Grossman , who took the pen-name Judith Merril about 1945, was an American and then Canadian science fiction writer, editor and political activist....
and has been anthologized.
At the time of publication, his apocalyptic vision of a sunk Japan wiped out by shifts incurred through geographic stress" worried a Japan still haunted by the atomic devastation of Hiroshima
Hiroshima
is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture, and the largest city in the Chūgoku region of western Honshu, the largest island of Japan. It became best known as the first city in history to be destroyed by a nuclear weapon when the United States Army Air Forces dropped an atomic bomb on it at 8:15 A.M...
and Nagasaki
Nagasaki
is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. Nagasaki was founded by the Portuguese in the second half of the 16th century on the site of a small fishing village, formerly part of Nishisonogi District...
. He was inspired to write it thinking of what would happen if the nationalistic Japanese lost their land, and ironically prefigured the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
The 2011 earthquake off the Pacific coast of Tohoku, also known as the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, or the Great East Japan Earthquake, was a magnitude 9.0 undersea megathrust earthquake off the coast of Japan that occurred at 14:46 JST on Friday, 11 March 2011, with the epicenter approximately east...
that triggered a nuclear plant disaster decades later on March 11, 2011 - the result of which he was interested in "to see how Japan would evolve" after the catastrophe.
Komatsu was involved in organizing the Japan World Exposition in Osaka Prefecture in 1970. In 1984, Komatsu served as a technical consultant for a live concert in Linz
Linz
Linz is the third-largest city of Austria and capital of the state of Upper Austria . It is located in the north centre of Austria, approximately south of the Czech border, on both sides of the river Danube. The population of the city is , and that of the Greater Linz conurbation is about...
, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
by Japanese electronic composer Isao Tomita
Isao Tomita
, often known simply as Tomita, is a Japanese music composer, regarded as one of the pioneers of electronic music and space music, and as one of the most famous producers of analog synthesizer arrangements...
. He won the 1985 Nihon SF Taisho Award
Nihon SF Taisho Award
Nihon SF Taishō Award is a Japanese science fiction award. It has been compared to the Nebula Award as it is given by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of Japan or SFWJ...
. Komatsu was one of two Author Guests of Honor at Nippon 2007, the 65th World Science Fiction Convention
65th World Science Fiction Convention
Nippon 2007, the 65th World Science Fiction Convention and the 46th Annual Nihon SF Taikai, was held in Yokohama, Japan from 30 August - 3 September 2007, at the Pacifico Yokohama Convention Center and adjoining hotels. The organising committee was chaired by Hiroaki Inoue...
in 2007 in Yokohama
Yokohama
is the capital city of Kanagawa Prefecture and the second largest city in Japan by population after Tokyo and most populous municipality of Japan. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kantō region of the main island of Honshu...
, Japan. This was the first Worldcon
Worldcon
Worldcon, or more formally The World Science Fiction Convention, is a science fiction convention held each year since 1939 . It is the annual convention of the World Science Fiction Society...
to be held in Asia.
With Shin'ichi Hoshi and Yasutaka Tsutsui
Yasutaka Tsutsui
is a Japanese novelist, science fiction author, and actor. Along with Shinichi Hoshi and Sakyo Komatsu, he is one of the most famous science fiction writers in Japan. His Yumenokizaka bunkiten won the Tanizaki Prize in 1987. He has also won the 1981 Izumi Kyoka award, the 1989 Kawabata Yasunari...
, Komatsu was considered one of the masters of Japanese science fiction.
Death
Komatsu died shortly after the destruction that followed the themes of his first and hugely successful novel. In the issue of his quarterly magazine published on July 21, Komatsu said he hoped to see how his country would evolve after the catastrophe. "I had thought I wouldn't mind dying any day," he wrote. "But now I'm feeling like living a little bit longer and seeing how Japan will go on hereafter." He died five days after publication, aged 80.Works
Novels- Apache Japan
- Japan Sinks (1973) (1982)
- Tokyo Blackout (首都消失, The Capital Vanishes) (1985)
- Blue Space Adventure (1985)
- Virus (復活の日, The Day of Resurrection)(1964)
- Kyomu Kairo (Nihilistic Corridor) (1999)
- Espy (2000)
- Flow Innocent Fruit (2000)
- Flying City 008 : Tale of Aozora City (2003)(2004)
Reviews, talks, and essays
- OMORO (1981)
- SF's seminar Sakyo Komatsu (1982)
- ISBN 4-334-97142-3 Testament to the SF (Kobunsha Publishing Co., Ltd., 1997)
- ISBN 4-19-861266-8 Educated (徳間書店, 2001)
Manga
- Minoru Mori comic fantasy Sakyo Komatsu ISBN 4-09-179421-1 Collection (Shogakukan, 2002)
Film
- Nihon ChinbotsuNihon Chinbotsu (1973 film)is a 1973 film directed by Shiro Moritani. It is based on the novel Japan Sinks by Sakyo Komatsu, published the same year. The film stars Lorne Greene, Keiju Kobayashi, Hiroshi Fujioka and Ayumi Ishida. A remake was released in 2006, Nihon Chinbotsu, loosely based on a second section of this...
(Submersion of Japan) (1973) - ESPYESPY (film)is a 1974 film based on the novel of the same name by Sakyo Komatsu. The film was directed by Jun Fukuda from a screenplay by Ei Ogawa. It stars Masao Kusakari, Kaoru Yumi, Tomisaburo Wakayama, and Eiji Okada. The film was released to U.S...
(1974) - Tokyo Blackout
- Virus (1980)
- Sayonara JupiterSayonara Jupiter (film)is a 1984 Japanese science fiction film directed by Koji Hashimoto and produced by Toho. The script was adapted by pioneering science-fiction author Sakyo Komatsu from his novel Sayonara Jupiter...
(1984) - Nihon Chinbotsu (Submersion of Japan) (2006)
TV programs
- PIPI alien (1965, NHKNHKNHK is Japan's national public broadcasting organization. NHK, which has always identified itself to its audiences by the English pronunciation of its initials, is a publicly owned corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee....
, a live-action cartoon + synthesis of the original work) - Aeropolice
- Fiying City 008 (1969, NHK, Science FictionScience fictionScience fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
MarionetteMarionetteA marionette is a puppet controlled from above using wires or strings depending on regional variations. A marionette's puppeteer is called a manipulator. Marionettes are operated with the puppeteer hidden or revealed to an audience by using a vertical or horizontal control bar in different forms...
Drama） - Time of the Apes (1974, TBSTokyo Broadcasting System, TBS Holdings, Inc. or TBSHD, is a stockholding company in Tokyo, Japan. It is a parent company of a television network named and radio network named ....
, Science Fiction TokusatsuTokusatsuis a Japanese term that applies to any live-action film or television drama that usually features superheroes and makes considerable use of special effects ....
Drama） - Nihon Chinbotsu (1974, TBS, Terevision Version of Film)
- Sakyo Komatsu's Animation Theater (1989)