Ryū Murakami

Ryū Murakami
Ryū Murakami in 2005
Born	February 19, 1952 (1952-02-19) (age 59) Sasebo, Nagasaki, Japan
Occupation	Author, Novelist, Film-maker
Nationality	Japanese
Influenced Tao Lin

Ryū Murakami (村上 龍, Murakami Ryū^?, born February 19, 1952 in Sasebo, Nagasaki) is a Japanese novelist and filmmaker. He is colloquially referred to as the "Maradona of Japanese literature".

Biography

Born as Ryūnosuke Murakami (村上龍之助) in Sasebo, Nagasaki on February 19, 1952. The name Ryunosuke was taken from the main character in Daibosatsutoge, a piece of fiction by Nakazato Kaizan (1885–1944).

He attended primary, middle and senior high school in Sasebo. While a student in senior high, Murakami helped form a rock band, in which he was the drummer. After the band’s breakup, he went on to join the rugby club, which he found especially grueling. He soon left the rugby club and transferred to the school’s newspaper department. In the summer of his third year in senior high, Murakami and his colleagues barricaded the rooftop of his high school and he was placed under house arrest for three months. During this time, he had an encounter with the hippie culture which influenced him greatly.

Murakami graduated from high school in 1970, around which time he went on to form yet another rock band and produce 8-millimeter indie films.

Murakami went to Tokyo and enrolled in the silkscreen department in Gendaishichosha school of art, but dropped out halfway through the year. In October 1972, he moved to Fussa near the base of the U.S. army and was accepted into the Musashino Art University in the sculpture program.

Works

Murakami's first work, the short novel Almost Transparent Blue, written while he was still a student of Musashino Art University, deals with promiscuity and drug use among disaffected Japanese youth. Critically acclaimed as a new style of literature, it won the newcomer's literature prize in 1976 despite some observers decrying it as decadent. Later the same year, Blue won the Akutagawa Prize, going on to become a best seller. In 1980, Murakami published the much longer novel Coin Locker Babies, again to critical acclaim.

In 1980, Murakami received the 3rd Noma Liberal Arts New Member prize for his novel Coin Locker Babies. Afterward he wrote an autobiographical work 69. His next work Ai to Genzou no Fascism (1987) revolves around the struggle reforming Japan’s Survival of the Fittest model of society, by a secret society the "Hunting Society". His work in 1988, Topaz, is about a SM Girl’s radical expression of her sexuality.

Murakami's story The World in Five Minutes From Now (1994) is written as a point of view in a parallel universe version of Japan, which got him nominated for the 30th Tanizaki Junichiro prize. In 1996 he continued his autobiography 69, and released the Murakami Ryu Movie and Novel Collection. He also won the Hirabayashitai Children’s literary prize. The same year, he wrote the novel Topaz II about a female high school student engaged in compensated dating activities, which later was adapted as a live action film Love and Pop by Anime director Hideaki Anno.

In 1998 he wrote the Psycho-horror styled story In the Miso Soup which won him the Yomiuri Literature Prize. In 1999 he became in the Editor in Chief of mail magazine JMM which discusses the ‘bubble’ economy of Japan.

In 2000, he wrote Parasites (Kyōsei Mushi) about a young hikikomori who is fascinated by war, which won him the 36th Tanizaki Junichiro Prize. The same year Kibō no Kuni no Exodus was written, a story about junior high students who lose their desire in being involved in normal Japanese society, and instead create a new society over the internet.

In 2001, he became involved in his friend Ryuichi Sakamoto's group N.M.L. No More Landmine (see Zero Landmine), which involves the removal of landmines that are still buried in many countries around the world.

In 2004, Murakami announced the publication of 13 Year Old Hello Work, a work whose aim is to increase an interest in young people to go and find jobs and work. His next work Hontō wo Deyo (2005) is about relations between Japan and Korea, which won him the 58th Noma Liberal Arts prize, and the 59th Mainichi Shuppon Culture Prize.

His novel Audition was adapted into a feature film by Takashi Miike. Murakami reportedly liked it so much he gave Miike his blessing to adapt Coin Locker Babies. The screen play was worked on by director Jordan Galland. However, Miike could not raise funding for the project. An adaptation directed by Michele Civetta is currently in production.^[1]

Murakami has played drums for a rock group called Coelacanth and hosted a TV talk show.

Selected bibliography

Year	Japanese Title	English Title	Comments
1976	限りなく透明に近いブルー Kagirinaku tōmeini chikai burū	Almost Transparent Blue	English translation by Nancy Andrew
1977	海の向こうで戦争が始まる Umi no mukō de sensō ga hajimaru	War Begins Beyond the Sea
1980	コインロッカー・ベイビーズ Koinrokkā Beibīzu	Coin Locker Babies	English translation by Stephen Snyder, Published from Kodansha International Ltd., 1995
1986	走れ！タカハシ Hashire! Takahashi	Run! Takahashi
1987	69 sixty nine Shikusutinain	69	English translation by Ralph F. McCarthy
1989	ラッフルズホテル Raffuruzu Hoteru	Raffles Hotel (novel)
1993	エクスタシー Ekusutashī	Ecstasy
1994	昭和歌謡大全集 Shōwa kayō daizenshū	Popular Hits of the Showa Era: A Novel	English translation by Ralph F. McCarthy. Published in English January 2011.
1994	五分後の世界 Gofungo no Sekai	The World in Five Minutes From Now
1994	ピアッシング Piasshingu	Piercing	English translation by Ralph F. McCarthy. Published in English January 2007.
1995	KYOKO Kyōko	Kyoko	French translation by Corinne Atlan
1997	イン ザ・ミソスープ In za Misosūpu	In the Miso Soup	English translation by Ralph F. McCarthy. Published in English 2005. French translation ("Miso Soup") by Corinne Atlan. Published in French January 2003.
	ストレンジ・デイズ Sutorenji Deizu	Strange Days
1998	ライン Rain	Lines	French translation ("Lignes") by Sylvain Cardonnel, Czech translation ("Čáry") by Jan Levora.
2000	共生虫 Kyōsei chū	Parasites	French translation by Sylvain Cardonnel
	メランコリア Merankoria	Melancholia
2005		I am a Novelist	short story published in The New Yorker English translation by Ralph McCarthy
	半島を出よ Hanto Wo Deyo
2006	ダイアローグ　村上壟X伊藤穣一 Daiarōgu Murakami Ryū X Itō Jōichi	Dialogue: Ryu Murakami X Joichi Ito

Filmography

Year	Japanese Title	English Title	Role	Director
1979	限りなく透明に近いブルー Kagirinaku tōmeini chikai burū	Almost Transparent Blue	Writer, Director	Ryu Murakami
1983	だいじょうぶマイ・フレンド Daijōbu mai furendo	All Right, My Friend	Writer, Director	Ryu Murakami
1989	ラッフルズホテル Raffuruzu Hoteru	Raffles Hotel	Writer, Director	Ryu Murakami
1992	トパーズ Topāzu	Tokyo Decadence	Writer, Director	Ryu Murakami
1996	ラブ＆ポップ Rabu & Poppu	Love & Pop	Writer	Hideaki Anno
1999	オーディション Ōdishon	Audition	Novel	Takashi Miike
2000	KYOKO	Because of You	Writer, Director	Ryu Murakami
2001	走れ！イチロー Hashire! Ichirō		Writer	Kazuki Omori
2003	昭和歌謡大全集 Shōwa kayō daizenshū	Karaoke Terror: The Complete Japanese Showa Songbook	Novel	Tetsuo Shinohara
2004	シクスティナイン Shikusutinain	69	Writer	Sang-il Lee
2006	ポプラル！ Popular!		Executive Producer	Jen Paz
2008	コインロッカー・ベイビーズ Koinrokkā Beibīzu	Coin Locker Babies	Writer	Michele Civetta

References

1. ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0451019/

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Persondata
Name	Murakami, Ryu
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	February 19, 1952
Place of birth	Sasebo, Nagasaki, Japan
Date of death
Place of death