Otohiko Kaga
Otohiko Kaga was a Japanese author.
Biography
Kaga was born in Tokyo, and studied psychiatry and criminology at the University of Tokyo Medical School. He worked in a hospital and then prison before going to France in 1957 for further studies. After returning to Japan in 1960, Kaga took up university teaching, and was a psychology professor at the Tokyo Medical and Dental University and Sophia University.Kaga wrote several novels based on his time in France, including Arechi o tabi suru monotachi and Furandoru no fuyu which won the Minister of Education Award for New Artists in 1968. His 1973 novel Kaerazaru natsu, on the tragic consequences of a young man's military indoctrination during World War II received the Tanizaki Prize. His 1982 historical fiction about World War II, Ikari no nai fune, has been translated to English to good reviews.
Kaga was a full-time writer from 1979. In 1987 he converted to Catholicism at the age of 58 through the influence of Shusaku Endo.
Kaga died on January 12, 2023, at the age of 93.
Major awards
- 1968 Minister of Education Award for New Artists for Furandoru no fuyu
- 1974 Tanizaki Prize for Kaerazaru natsu
- 1979 Japan Literature Grand Prize for Senkoku
- 1985 Osaragi Jiro Prize for Shitsugen
- 2011 Person of Cultural Merit