Authors
Keiichiro Hirano Novelist Japan
Keiichiro was born in Aiichi, Japan, in 1975. After the sudden death of his father at the age of one, his family moved to his mother’s home town in Fukuoka. From early on, he was influenced by writers such as Thomas Mann and Charles Baudelaire, and while being an undergraduate in law at Kyoto University, his first novel The Eclipse (Nissoku) was published as the main feature novel in Japan’s foremost literary journal Shincho to general acclaim. In 1999, he was the youngest writer in 23 years to have received Japan’s most prestigious literary award, the Akutagawa Prize, for The Eclipse. The novel brings to life the European medieval world, showing a wide historical knowledge and a sumptuous ancient oriental writing style. In 2002 he published the massive The Funeral (Sousou), where he paints the intellectual history of modern Europe seen through the eyes of artists such as Chopin and Delacroix, in 19th century Paris, through detailed historical research and rich literary imagery. His novels, noted for the totally different styles by which he treats such themes as death, memory, language, and eroticism, are being translated and introduced in France, Korea, Taiwan, Russia, and Sweden. In 2004 he stayed for a year in Paris as Japan’s cultural ambassador, and held talks all over Europe.
Participation Program
Round Table 3 Newness in my literature
Round Table 2 Newness in my literature
Round Table 1 Newness in my literature