Noboru Tsujihara

Noboru Tsujihara is the kind of writer whose name might not ring an immediate bell, but the moment you line up his awards you realize you're looking at someone genuinely formidable — Akutagawa Prize, Tanizaki Prize, Kawabata Prize, Shiba Ryotaro Prize, the Japan Art Academy Prize, a Purple Ribbon Medal, and then some. He grew up in Inami, a tiny fishing-town corner of Wakayama, and I think that origin matters: there's something about writers who come out of quiet, peripheral places that gives their prose a particular gravity, like they had to earn every word. Born in 1945, he came of age in postwar Japan when the country was rebuilding its identity from scratch, and that generational weight tends to show up in the work whether the author intends it or not. He keeps a low public profile — no social media footprint, no flashy persona — and honestly, that restraint feels right. The bibliography does the talking. The kind of novelist you come to late and then wonder how you went so long without.

Noboru Tsujihara is a Japanese novelist born on December 15, 1945, in Inami, Wakayama Prefecture. He is one of Japan's most decorated literary figures, having received the Akutagawa Prize in 1990 along with several other major awards including the Tanizaki Jun'ichiro Prize, the Kawabata Yasunari Literary Prize, the Shiba Ryotaro Prize, and the Ito Sei Literary Prize. In 2012 he was awarded the Purple Ribbon Medal, one of Japan's government honors for cultural achievement.

Name (English)

Noboru Tsujihara

Name (Japanese)

辻原登

Reading

つじはら のぼる

Born

December 15, 1945 (age 80)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Sagittarius / Rooster (酉)

Origin

Inami, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan

Occupation

Novelist / Author

Awards & achievements

• 1990 — Akutagawa Prize
• 2000 — Tanizaki Jun'ichiro Prize
• 2005 — Kawabata Yasunari Literary Prize
• 2011 — Shiba Ryotaro Prize
• 2012 — Purple Ribbon Medal
• 2013 — Ito Sei Literary Prize
• Year Unknown — Japan Art Academy Prize

Motto

Private

• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%BE%BB%E5%8E%9F%E7%99%BB

Tags

• From Wakayama Prefecture
• Novelist
• Author

Last updated

2026-06-02

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.