Factbook

In 1976 Kenji Nakagami (1946-1992) won the Akutagawa literary award, one of Japan’s most prestigious awards for creative writing, for Misaki, The Cape. He was the first Japanese author born after the Second World War to win the prize, which was set up in 1935 and is named after the famous Japanese author Ryunosuke Akutagawa (1892-1927).

Unlike many contemporary prize-winning Japanese authors, Nakagami, did not attend Waseda University or in fact any university. He came from a mostly illiterate family having been born into a community or social group known as burakumin, a minority Japanese community of ostracised ‘untouchables’ – a so-called underclass at the bottom of the Japanese social order.

The burakumin have historically been discriminated against in particular when it comes to employment and marriage prospects. Nakagami moved to Tokyo after high school initially working as a laborer before starting to write short stories. 

Nakagami’s works were influenced significantly by his background and upbringing. His Akutagawa winning story was published in English translation, translated by Eve Zimmerman, in a collection entitled: The Cape And Other Stories from the Japanese Ghetto, in 1999, by Stone Bridge Press.

The publisher describes The Cape as a ‘breakthrough novella about a burakumin community, their troubled memories, and complex family histories.’