Taku Mayumura (眉村 卓Mayumura Taku, 20 October 1934 – 3 November 2019) was a Japanese novelist, science fiction writer[1] and haiku poet. He won the Seiun Award for Novel twice. His novel Shiseikan (司政官, Administrator, one story of the "Shiseikan series"), written in 1974, was translated into English by Daniel Jackson in 2004.[2] Mayumura was also a young adult fiction writer whose works have been adapted into TV drama, film, and anime. Mayumura was an honorary member of the SFWJ (Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of Japan).
Biography
Mayumura was born as Murakami Takuji (村上 卓児), at Osaka city, Osaka prefecture in 1934.[1] He graduated from Osaka University in 1957 with a degree in economics,[1] as well as a judo competition career at the Nanatei league. After graduation, he joined a company. While working at this company, he wrote short novels and submitted them to contests in commercial literary magazines.
In 1960, he joined the SF fanzineUchūjin.[1] In 1961, he won the Best Story prize in the 1st Kūsō-Kagaku Shōsetsu Contest (later the Hayakawa SF Contest) for his novelKakyū Aidea-man (Junior Idea-Man)[1] and made his debut in the S-F Magazine with this work.
In 1965, he retired from the company and started working as an independent writer.[1] Mayumura's first book, the science fiction novel Moeru Keisha (燃える傾斜), was published by Tōto Shobo in the same year.
In 1976, his book Psychic School Wars was released, and was later adapted into both live action and anime versions.[4]
In 1979, he won the seventh Izumi Kyōka Prize for Literature and the Seiun Award for his novel Shōmetsu no Kōrin,[3] which is the representative work in his "Shiseikan series". In 1996, he won his second Seiun Award for another entry in the Shiseikan series, the long novel Hikishio no Toki.
His story Toraerareta School Bus inspired the 1986 anime film Toki no Tabibito - Time Stranger.[5]
Mayumura was also a well-known young adult fiction writer. [3] His representative works in this field were Nazo no Tenkousei and Nerawareta Gakuen etc. These works were adapted into TV Drama series by NHK, and adapted into Cinema too. Other juvenile fictions by Mayumura were adapted into the anime Toki no Tabibito.
In 2002, his wife died of cancer. Mayumura had been writing a very short story every day for his wife, who was in the hospital bedridden since the cancer had been diagnosed. When his stories, which were written each day and numbered, reached to 1778, his wife died.[1] These stories were compiled and published. The film Boku to Tsuma no 1778 no Monogatari, based on this true story, was released in 2011.[3]
In 2004, he work Administrator was published in English.[3]
In 2012, an anime film adaptation was being created of his science fiction children's novel Nerawareta Gakuen, which is a set in a prep school. At that time, the book had also inspired four live-action TV adaptations, and two live-action films.[6]
In 2020, he was posthumously awarded the Meritorious Service Award in its 40th Nihon SF Taishō Awards by the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of Japan (SFWJ).[5]
Haiku poetry
Mayumura was also a haiku poet. He was a member of the haiku club in his high school. He posted his haiku work to the haiku coterie magazine Ashibu (馬酔木) which Shūōshi Mizuhara (JA) presided over. Mayumura has been a coterie membera of the haiku magazine "Uzu" (渦). In 2009, he published a Haiku book "Kiri wo yuku" (霧を行く).
Style of writings
As a literary theorist, he advocated the "Insider Bungaku-ron" (Theory of Literature by Insiders).[7] Consistent with this theme, his novels frequently tackle the issues of problematic relations between individuals and the corporate or bureaucratic organizations to which they belong.
Mayumura wrote various stories. His stages of the fictions range from the ordinary life scenes of common people to the fantastic worlds hidden back in the daily life, to the inter-stellar federation of far future.
Especially, strange and fantastic aspects of the reality, adjacent to the ordinary life are the essence of his fantastic stories.[8]
Personal life
He died early in the morning (at 04:01 AM in JST) of November 3, 2019 due to aspiration pneumonia[9] in Osaka.[10] His family stated he had been dealing with cancer for several years, and had been hospitalized on October 8, continuing to write in his bed until his death.[3]
Hikishio no Toki (引き潮のとき) 1–5, 1988-1995 Hayakawa Publishing
Wonder Tea Room (ワンダー・ティー・ルーム) 1992, Jitsugyō no nihon
Higawari Ichiwa, Book 1, Book 2 (日がわり一話, 第1-2集) 1998, Shuppan Geijutsusha
Tsuma ni Sasageta 1778-wa (妻に捧げた1778話, 1,778 Stories dedicated to My Wife, [Tsuma ni Sasageta Sen Nana-hyaku Nana-jū Hachi-wa]) 2004
etc.
Shiseikan series
The Shiseikan (Administrator) series is summarized as follows: In the distant future, the humans of Earth constitute the Terrestrial Federation; the Terrestrial humans have spread far across outer space and colonized numerous planets and solar systems. The Federation established local governments on those planets to establish law and order among the human settlers, and to mediate between Terrestrials and the sapient aliens who had been originally born, evolved and lived on certain of these planets before the settlers arrived. In the early period, the planets had been ruled by Federation-aligned military juntas; however, the Federation has begun to recall the military administrations and send civilian administrators to govern on their behalf. The troubles faced by these administrators constitute the stories of Shiseikan.
^Mayumura considered that literature was traditionally created by, and written from the view point of, artists who stood outside of the common society; in contrast, his literary theory insisted on the necessity of the "insiders", necessity of literature written from the common man's point of view.
