Taku Mayumura


Taku Mayumura was a Japanese novelist, science fiction writer and haiku poet. He won the Seiun Award for Novel twice. His novel Shiseikan, written in 1974, was translated into English by Daniel Jackson in 2004. 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.

Biography

Mayumura was born as Murakami Takuji, at Osaka city, Osaka prefecture in 1934. He graduated from Osaka University in 1957 with a degree in economics, 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.
He started professionally as a copywriter.
In 1960, he joined the SF fanzine Uchūjin. In 1961, he won the Best Story prize in the 1st Kūsō-Kagaku Shōsetsu Contest for his novel Kakyū Aidea-man 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. Mayumura's first book, the science fiction novel Moeru Keisha, 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.
In 1979, he won the seventh Izumi Kyōka Prize for Literature and the Seiun Award for his novel Shōmetsu no Kōrin, 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.
Mayumura was also a well-known young adult fiction writer. 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. These stories were compiled and published. The film Boku to Tsuma no 1778 no Monogatari, based on this true story, was released in 2011.
In 2004, he work Administrator was published in English.
As of 2008, Mayumura was a professor of the Graduate School of Osaka University of Arts.
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.
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.

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 which Shūōshi Mizuhara presided over. Mayumura has been a coterie membera of the haiku magazine "Uzu". In 2009, he published a Haiku book "Kiri wo yuku".

Style of writings

As a literary theorist, he advocated the "Insider Bungaku-ron". 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.

Personal life

He died early in the morning of November 3, 2019 due to aspiration pneumonia in Osaka. 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.

Awards

Works in English translation

Administrator
  • "Fnifmum"
  • "I'll Get Rid of Your Discontent"

Works

Novels

Moeru Keisha 1963, Touto ShobouGen'ei no Kōsei 1966, Hayakawa ShobouEXPO' 87 1968, Hayakawa ShobouWa ga Sexoid 1969, Rippu ShobouTechunit 1969, San'ichi ShobouJun B-kyū Shimin 1966, Hayakawa Publishing, Hayakawa SF SeriesBankokuhaku ga Yattekuru 1968, Hayakawa Publishing, Hayakawa SF SeriesNiji wa Kieta 1969, Hayakawa Publishing, Hayakawa SF SeriesToki no Odysseus 1971, Hayakawa Publishing, Hayakawa SF SeriesC-seki no Kyaku 1971, Nihon Keizai Shinbunsha, 1973, Kadokawa BunkoKarera no Naka no Umi 1973, Hayakawa PublishingKiga Rettō 1974, Hayakawa Publishing, Salon wa Owatta 1974, Hayakawa Bunko JAShiseikan 1974, Hayakawa PublishingAno Shinju-iro no Asa wo... 1974, Kadokawa BunkoKimyōna Tsuma 1975, Hayakawa Publishing, 1978 Kadokawa BunkoIkyō Henge 1976, Kadokawa BunkoNubatama no... 1978, KoudanshaShōmetsu no Kōrin 1979, Hayakawa PublishingBokutachi no Pocket 1980, Kadokawa BunkoNagai Akatsuki 1980, Hayakawa PublishingPocket no ABC 1982, Kadokawa ShotenPocket no XYZ 1982, Kadokawa ShotenFutsū no Kazoku 1984, Kadokawa BunkoMeikyū Monogatari 1986, Kadokawa ShotenFuteiki Esper 1–8, 1988–1990, Tokuma ShotenHikishio no Toki 1–5, 1988-1995 Hayakawa PublishingWonder Tea Room 1992, Jitsugyō no nihonHigawari Ichiwa, Book 1, Book 2 1998, Shuppan GeijutsushaTsuma ni Sasageta 1778-wa 2004

Shiseikan series

The Shiseikan 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.Shiseikan (司政官\\\

Young adult fiction

Tensai wa Tsukurareru 1968Maboroshi no Pen Friend 1970, 2006Nazo no Tenkōsei 1972, 2004Nejireta Machi 1974, 2005Sangyō Shikan Kōhosei 1974Jigoku no Sainō 1975Nerawareta Gakuen 1976, 2003Omoiagari no Natsu 1977, Kadokawa Bunko Tozasareta Jikanwari 1977Naitara Shi ga Kuru 1977Shiroi Futōshiki 1978Tsukurareta Asu 1980Toraerareta School Bus ) 1981-1983 Kadokawa Bunko, Shiirareta Henshin 1988

Historical story

Cartago no Unmei 1998, Shin Jinbutsu Ōraisha

Others or uncertain

Chikyū e no Tōi Michi 1970, Mainichi ShinbunshaNijū-Yo-Jikan no Sinnyūsha 1974, AkimotoWaru-nori Ryokō 1975, Kadokawa BunkoShin'ya Hōsō no Happening 1977, AkimotoMōretsu Kyōshi 1977Shiroi Kobako 1977, Jitsugyou no NihonTōrisugita Yatsu 1977, Ruppu ShoboHenna Otoko 1978, Kadokawa BunkoOshaberi Meiro 1979, Kadokawa ShotenGekkō no Sasu Basho 1980Katamuita Chiheisen 1981, Kadokawa BunkoSorezore no Magarikado 1986, Kadokawa BunkoYūyake no Kaiten Mokuba 1986, Kadokawa BunkoNiji no Uragawa 1994, Shuppan Geijutsusha

Essays

Giyaman to Kikai 1977, PHP KenkyushoTeri-kageri no Fūkei - Kessaku Essay 1981.12, Kosaido shuppanOsaka no Machikado - Mayumura Taku Semba Essay 1995.11 San'itsu shobo

Haiku poetry

Kiri wo Yuku 2009

Works adapted into TV drama

Maboroshi no Pen Friend 1974, 2001Nazo no Tenkōsei 1975、2014Nerawareta Gakuen 1977, 1982, 1987, 1997Jigoku no Sainō 1977Nagori no Yuki 1977, 1994

Works adapted into cinema film

Nerawareta Gakuen 1981, 1997 Nazo no Tenkōsei 1998 Boku to Tsuma no 1778 no Monogatari based on his life episode and short stories.

Works adapted into anime film

Toki no Tabibito 1986 Neo Tokyo (Meikyuu Monogatari) 1987 Nerawareta Gakuen 2012