Ryū Murakami, Japanese literature loses one of its most restless voices
Publisher Gentosha has announced the death, on 17 October, of the author of Almost Transparent Blue, Audition and Coin Locker Babies.
Writer and film-maker Ryū Murakami has died in Tokyo aged 74. He died at home on 17 October, with publisher Gentosha announcing the news on the 23rd; a private funeral was held for his family. Murakami made his debut in 1976 with Almost Transparent Blue, winning both the Gunzo New Writers’ Prize and the Akutagawa Prize that year. Across more than 40 works, he examined the harsher edges of Japanese society: alienation, desire, violence, addiction and cultural change. Coin Locker Babies, In the Miso Soup, Piercing and Audition established a visual, radical style that frequently moved to the screen. He was not related to Haruki Murakami. His body of work remains able to unsettle, question and portray the present without softening its contradictions.