Congratulation to Unexpected Japanese Novelist

Swedish Academy announced on Thursday that Nobel Prize for Literature this year went to a Japanese-born writer Kazuo Ishiguro. Newspapers in Japan in the Friday morning reported that news with surprise and congratulation for the mostly unknown novelist with Japanese name. Failed in predicting the name for the prize this year, though, Japanese media added Ishiguro on the list of Japanese laureates of Noble Prize for Literature as well as Yasunari Kawabata and Kenzaburo Oe.

Ishiguro, 62, was born in Nagasaki, Japan, in a family of an oceanographer who moved to England when Ishiguro was five years old. Studied in University of Kent and University of East Anglia, Ishiguro released his first work of short novel in 1981. He won Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize of British Royal Society of Literature for A Pale View of Hills in 1982, in which he described reminiscence of a woman born in Nagasaki.

Afterward, Ishiguro accumulated his career as a popular novelist. He received Booker Prize, one of the most authoritative prizes in literature in Britain, for The Remains of the Day in 1989, which was made into a movie acted by Anthony Hopkins. Never Let Me Go in 2005 became a worldwide bestseller, which was made into a TV drama in Japan. The Times included Ishiguro in the 50 greatest British writers since 1945.

Asahi Shimbun reported the scene of the announcement of Swedish Academy as surprising voices coming out of the reporters and then applause followed. It quoted the Academy’s introduction of Ishiguro, “who, in novels of great emotional force, has uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world.” Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy, Sara Danius, told “I would say if you mix Jane Austin and Franz Kafka you get Ishiguro in a nutshell.” Newspapers also quoted Ishiguro’s comment, “I just hope that my receiving this huge honor will, even in a small way, encourage the forces for goodwill and peace at this time.”

The top Japanese candidate for the prize among media reports has been Haruki Murakami for these years. For the disappointment of his fans, Murakami again missed the prize. Instead, the bookstores became busy for setting Ishiguro’s books on the shelves in Thursday night. “Although I expected him to be awarded soon, I had no idea that it would be this year,” told President of Hayakawa, Hiroshi Hayakawa, that had exclusive copyright for Ishiguro’s works. The people in Nagasaki suddenly got proud of Ishiguro. It is not rare for the Japanese to be novel fans after the author wins famous prize of literature.