was a Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese author of I novel

I Novel

is a literary genre in Japanese literature used to describe a type of confessional literature where the events in the story correspond to events in the author's life. This genre was founded based on the Japanese reception of Naturalism during the Meiji period. Many authors believed form reflected...

s. Kanji

Kanji

Kanji are the adopted logographic Chinese characters hanzi that are used in the modern Japanese writing system along with hiragana , katakana , Indo Arabic numerals, and the occasional use of the Latin alphabet...

 of his real name was 外村 茂, but it was same reading as the pen name.

Tonomura was born into a conservative merchant's family in Shiga Prefecture

Shiga Prefecture

is a prefecture of Japan, which forms part of the Kansai region on Honshu Island. The capital is the city of Ōtsu.- History :Shiga was known as Ōmi Province or Gōshū before the prefectural system was established...

 and raised by devout parents who believed in Pure Land Buddhism

Pure Land Buddhism

Pure Land Buddhism , also referred to as Amidism in English, is a broad branch of Mahāyāna Buddhism and currently one of the most popular traditions of Buddhism in East Asia. Pure Land is a branch of Buddhism focused on Amitābha Buddha...

. After graduation from the University of Tokyo

University of Tokyo

, abbreviated as , is a major research university located in Tokyo, Japan. The University has 10 faculties with a total of around 30,000 students, 2,100 of whom are foreign. Its five campuses are in Hongō, Komaba, Kashiwa, Shirokane and Nakano. It is considered to be the most prestigious university...

 with a degree in economics, he took over the family business as a wholesale cotton merchant. His house in Gokashōkondō-chō

Gokasho, Shiga

was a town located in Kanzaki District, Shiga, Japan.On February 11, 2005 Gokashō was merged with the town of Eigenji, also from Kanzaki District, the towns of Aitō and Kotō, both from Echi District, and the old city of Yōkaichi, to form the new city of Higashiōmi.In 2003, the town had an estimated...

, Higashiōmi

Higashiomi, Shiga

is a city located in Shiga Prefecture, Japan.As of 2008, the city has an estimated population of 117,557 and the density of 303 persons per km². The total area is 388.58 km²....

, is now a museum that reflects Ōmi Province

Omi Province

is an old province of Japan, which today comprises Shiga Prefecture. It was one of the provinces that made up the Tōsandō circuit. It is nicknamed as .Lake Biwa, Japan's largest lake, is located at the center of the province...

 merchant life.

In 1933 Tonomura handed over control of the business to his brother and began to write seriously. He received the 1956 Noma Literary Prize

Noma Literary Prize

The Noma Literary Prize was established in 1941 by the Noma Service Association in accordance with the last wishes of Noma Seiji , founder and first president of the Kōdansha publishing company. The Noma Literary Prize has been awarded annually to an outstanding new work published in Japan...

 for Ikada (筏) and the 1960 Yomiuri Prize

Yomiuri Prize

The is a prestigious literary award in Japan. The prize was founded in 1948 by the Yomiuri Shinbun Company to help form a "cultural nation". The winner is awarded one million Japanese yen and an inkstone.-Award categories:...

 for Miotsukushi (澪標). Tonomura was good friends with Motojirō Kajii

Motojiro Kajii

was a Japanese author in the early Shōwa period of Japan. He left masterpieces of poetic short stories such as "The Lemon", "Winter Days", and "Under the Cherry Trees"...

.