Yasutaka Tsutsui, the multi award-winning Japanese science fiction author born in Osaka in the 1930s, who is often cited as one of the post-modern pioneers of Japan’s idiosyncratic and highly creative science fiction, and so-called metafiction, was actually influenced by two American writers when he was starting out as an author.
According to Takayuki Tatsumi’s essay The Japanoid Manifesto: Toward a New Poetics of Invisible Culture, the Japanese guru of metafiction, probably now best known for The Girl Who Fell Through Time, started his career in the 1960s by closely examining the style of Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961), and absorbing the pseudo-event/hyper-spectacle theory of Daniel Boorstein (1914-2004).
Today, Tsutsui is known mostly for his books that have been adapted for anime and manga. His work, often cynical, surreal and humourous, tends to satirise Japan and controversial and important topics such as the Olympics, disabilities, and gender-politics.
He has written dozens of novels and short stories and due to his frequent use of parody and the timing of his most productive and successful periods, he has at times been called ‘Japan’s Guru of Metafiction’.
Japan’s so-called guru of metafiction, Yasutaka Tsutsui, was influenced early on in his career by Ernest Hemingway
[UPDATED: 9-3-2026]
© Red Circle Authors Limited
Japan’s so-called guru of metafiction, Yasutaka Tsutsui, was influenced early on in his career by Ernest Hemingway
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