Sakyō Komatsu

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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)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Okura Ken: Afterword. In: SF from Japan, Goldmann Verlag, Munich 1982, p. 202.
  2. ↑ Interview in Science Fiction Studies , engl.
  3. ↑ 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