Sakyō Komatsu
Sakyō Komatsu ( Japanese 小松 左 京 , Komatsu Sakyō ; * January 28, 1931 in Nishi-ku , Osaka as Minoru Komatsu ( 小松 実 , Komatsu Minoru ); † July 26, 2011 in Osaka ) was one of the most famous Japanese science fiction - Writer .
Life
Komatsu studied Italian literature at Kyōto University and, through reading Kōbō Abe and the Italian classics, came up with the idea that modern literature and science fiction are basically the same thing. After graduating, he worked as an editor for a business magazine and as a journalist and reporter for Radio Osaka. The first own science fiction story appeared in 1962; Chi ni wa Heiwa o ( peace on earth ) describes the intervention of a future authority for future control in the course of the Second World War . In the western countries he became known through the novels Japan Sink and Sayonara Jupiter ( さ よ な ら ジ ュ ピ タ ), both were filmed, Japan Sink 1973 ( The Fall of Japan ) and 2006 (English Sinking of Japan ). His novel ESPY ( エ ス パ イ , 1970), which is about ESP- gifted criminal hunters, was also made into a film (1974); neither the book nor the film were published in Germany.
For Japan sinks , Komatsu received the Seiun Prize . The novel describes the sinking of the main Japanese islands in a chain of devastating earthquakes and is a long-lasting success in Japan; the versions available in German are only translations of the American version, which has been shortened to a third of the original text.
Based on motifs from his novel Fukkatsu no hi (1964; German 1987 as The Day of Resurrection ), the film Overkill - Through Hell to Eternity was shot in 1980 .
Together with Shin'ichi Hoshi and Yasutaka Tsutsui , Komatsu was included in the "Big Three" of Japanese science fiction.
In 2002 the asteroid (6983) Komatsusakyo was named after him.
Komatsu died of pneumonia on July 26, 2011 in a hospital near Osaka. He was 80 years old.
Works (selection)
- Chi ni wa heiwa o ( 地 に は 平和 を , 1963, peace on earth)
- Fukkatsu no hi ( 復活 の 日 , 1964), German The Day of Resurrection , Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich 1987
- ESPY ( エ ス パ イ , 1970)
- Nippon Chimbotsu ( 日本 沈没 , 1973), German Japan sinks , Volk und Welt publishing house, Berlin 1979; When Japan is sinking , Zsolnay, Vienna and Hamburg 1979
Film adaptations (selection)
- 1980: Fukkatsu no hi as Overkill - Through hell to eternity
literature
- Hans Joachim Alpers , Werner Fuchs , Ronald M. Hahn : Reclam's science fiction guide. Reclam, Stuttgart 1982, ISBN 3-15-010312-6 , p. 235.
- Hans Joachim Alpers, Werner Fuchs, Ronald M. Hahn, Wolfgang Jeschke : Lexicon of Science Fiction Literature. Heyne, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-453-02453-2 , p. 621.
- Jonathan Clements, Takumi Shibano, John Clute : Komatsu Sakyō. In: John Clute, Peter Nicholls : The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction . 3rd edition (online edition), version dated March 27, 2017.
- Rainulf Waalström: When Japan is sinking, or who has the rich. old island killed? A more or less benevolent criticism of murderous deformations of an innocent work. In: Quarber Merkur No. 66, Bremerhaven 1986, pp. 55-65.
Web links
- Literature by and about Sakyō Komatsu in the catalog of the German National Library
- Sakyō Komatsu in the Internet Speculative Fiction Database (English)
- Sakyō Komatsu in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Works by and about Sakyō Komatsu at Open Library
Individual evidence
- ↑ Okura Ken: Afterword. In: SF from Japan, Goldmann Verlag, Munich 1982, p. 202.
- ↑ Interview in Science Fiction Studies , engl.
- ↑ Science-fiction novelist Sakyo Komatsu Passes Away . Anime News Network , July 28, 2011.
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Komatsu, Sakyō |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | 小松 左 京 (Japanese) |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Japanese science fiction writer |
DATE OF BIRTH | January 28, 1931 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Nishi-ku , Osaka |
DATE OF DEATH | July 26, 2011 |
Place of death | Osaka prefecture |