Haruki Murakami facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Haruki Murakami
村上 春樹 |
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Murakami in 2018
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| Born | January 12, 1949 Fushimi-ku, Kyoto, Japan |
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| Language | Japanese |
| Alma mater | Waseda University (BA) |
| Period | Contemporary |
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Haruki Murakami (村上 春樹, Murakami Haruki, born January 12, 1949) is a famous Japanese writer. His novels, essays, and short stories are very popular in Japan and all over the world. His books have been translated into 50 languages and have sold millions of copies.
Murakami has won many awards for his writing, like the World Fantasy Award and the Franz Kafka Prize. He grew up in Ashiya, near Kobe, and later moved to Tokyo to study at Waseda University. Before becoming a full-time writer, he owned a small jazz bar for seven years.
Some of his most well-known novels include Norwegian Wood (1987), The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (1994–95), Kafka on the Shore (2002), and 1Q84 (2009–10). His writing often mixes real-life events with strange, dream-like, or "magical" elements. He also writes non-fiction, like Underground, which is about the Tokyo subway sarin attack, and What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, a memoir about his love for running.
Critics and readers have different opinions about his work. Some Japanese critics found his style "un-Japanese" at first. However, many people around the world see him as one of the greatest living novelists.
Contents
About His Life
Murakami was born in Kyoto, Japan, in 1949. He grew up in different cities like Nishinomiya, Ashiya, and Kobe. He was an only child. His father was a Buddhist priest's son, and his mother was a merchant's daughter. Both of his parents taught Japanese literature. His father was deeply affected by the Second Sino-Japanese War, which later influenced Murakami's writing.
From a young age, Murakami was very interested in Western culture, especially music and books from Europe and America. He read many works by writers like Franz Kafka and Kurt Vonnegut. These Western influences make his writing different from many other Japanese authors.
Murakami studied drama at Waseda University in Tokyo, where he met his wife, Yoko. His first job was at a record store. Before finishing his studies, he and Yoko opened a coffee house and jazz bar called Peter Cat. They ran it together from 1974 to 1981. They decided not to have children.
Murakami is also a dedicated marathon runner and loves triathlons. He started running when he was 33 years old to stay healthy. In 1996, he completed a 100 km (about 62 miles) race around Lake Saroma in Hokkaido, Japan. He wrote about how running affects his creative life in his 2007 book, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running.
His Writing Journey
Murakami started writing fiction when he was 29. He said he was just an ordinary person running a jazz club before that. He got the idea for his first novel, Hear the Wind Sing (1979), while watching a baseball game. He felt a "warm sensation" and knew he could write. He went home and started that night.
He worked on Hear the Wind Sing for ten months, writing in short bursts after his long days at the bar. He won a literary contest with it. This success encouraged him to keep writing. A year later, he published a sequel, Pinball, 1973. In 1982, he published A Wild Sheep Chase, which was very popular. These three books are sometimes called the Trilogy of the Rat. Murakami feels that A Wild Sheep Chase was his first book where he truly felt the "joy of telling a story."
Becoming Famous
In 1985, Murakami wrote Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, a fantasy novel with many magical elements. It sold millions of copies in Japan.
His novel Norwegian Wood made him very famous. He became so well-known that he left Japan in 1986 to travel through Europe and live in the United States. He now lives in Oiso, Kanagawa, Japan, and has an office in Tokyo.
While in the United States, he was a writing fellow at universities like Princeton University and Harvard University. During this time, he wrote South of the Border, West of the Sun and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.
Writing About Important Events
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (1995) combines real and fantastic elements and touches on serious topics like war crimes. This book won the Yomiuri Prize.
After the Kobe earthquake and the Aum Shinrikyo gas attack in Japan, Murakami returned home. These events made him want to write about shared experiences and trauma. He wrote his first non-fiction book, Underground, which includes interviews with victims of the gas attacks. He also wrote the short story collection after the quake, inspired by the earthquake.
Murakami explained that his writing changed from being "detached" (more personal) to "committed" (more focused on society) after living in the United States. He sees The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle as the turning point for this change.
He has also translated many books by famous Western authors like F. Scott Fitzgerald and Raymond Carver into Japanese. He even helped with the English translations of his own books, sometimes encouraging changes to make them fit better for American readers.
Recent Works
Since 1999, Murakami has continued to publish many popular books. These include Sputnik Sweetheart (1999), Kafka on the Shore (2002), and After Dark (2007). Kafka on the Shore won the World Fantasy Award in 2006.
In 2006, he published Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman, a collection of 24 short stories. His memoir about running, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, came out in 2007 in Japan and 2008 in English.
His novel 1Q84 was published in Japan in 2009. The title sounds like "1984" in Japanese. This book was very popular. In 2013, he published Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, which also became an international bestseller. His most recent novel, as of 2018, is Killing Commendatore.
How He Writes
Most of Haruki Murakami's books are told from the "first-person" point of view, meaning the main character tells the story using "I." He says that his main characters often value freedom and being alone.
Murakami's stories also have a unique sense of humor. For example, in his short story "Superfrog Saves Tokyo," the main character meets a 6-foot-tall frog that talks about saving Tokyo over tea. Even when the topic is serious, Murakami wants readers to be entertained. His characters often comment on how strange the story itself is, which Murakami says is how he feels while writing. He compares writing to making a movie just for himself.
Many of his novels have titles and themes inspired by classical music. For example, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle has parts named after a Rossini opera and a Robert Schumann piano piece. Some of his novels are even named after songs, like Norwegian Wood (after The Beatles song) and Dance, Dance, Dance (after a song by The Dells).
Awards and Recognition
Murakami has won many awards for his books and his overall writing career:
- 1979: Gunzo Award for Hear the Wind Sing
- 1982: Noma Literary Prize for A Wild Sheep Chase
- 1985: Tanizaki Prize for Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
- 1995: Yomiuri Prize for The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
- 2006: World Fantasy Award for Kafka on the Shore
- 2006: Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award for Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman
- 2016: Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award
- 2018: America Award in Literature for his lifetime contribution to international writing
- 2023: Princess of Asturias Award for Literature
In 2009, Murakami received the Jerusalem Prize, an award given to writers whose work explores themes of human freedom, society, and government. There were some protests against him attending the ceremony in Israel because of recent events in Gaza. However, Murakami chose to go and gave a speech where he criticized government systems. He said, "Each of us possesses a tangible living soul. The system has no such thing. We must not allow the system to exploit us."
In 2011, Murakami donated his prize money from the International Catalunya Prize to the victims of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, and to those affected by the Fukushima nuclear disaster. He spoke about how the Fukushima disaster was a mistake made by humans, and that Japan should have learned from past nuclear tragedies.
Many people often wonder if Haruki Murakami will win the Nobel Prize in Literature. However, Murakami himself has joked that he doesn't want prizes because it means "you're finished."
He has also received honorary degrees from several universities, including Princeton University and Yale University.
His Archives
In 2018, Waseda University in Tokyo agreed to keep Haruki Murakami's archives. These include his original writings, notes, and even his music collection. In 2021, the Waseda International House of Literature, also known as the Haruki Murakami Library, opened. This library is entirely dedicated to his works and holds over 3,000 of his books, including translations into more than 50 languages.
The library also has a coffee shop run by students, named Orange Cat (after Murakami's old jazz bar, Peter Cat). There's also a listening lounge where visitors can listen to records from Murakami's own collection.
Books to Movies and More
Many of Murakami's stories have been turned into films, plays, and even video games.
- His first novel, Hear the Wind Sing, was made into a Japanese film in 1981.
- Short films have been made from his stories "Bakery Attack" and "On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning."
- His short story "Tony Takitani" became a 75-minute feature film in 2005.
- The German film The Polar Bear (1998) used parts of his short story "The Second Bakery Attack". This story was also adapted into a short film in 2010 starring Kirsten Dunst.
- In 2003, a play called The Elephant Vanishes was created, adapting three of his short stories. It used video, music, and physical theater.
- Two stories from after the quake, "Honey Pie" and "Superfrog Saves Tokyo," were adapted for the stage in 2007. A play based on Kafka on the Shore also premiered in 2008.
- In 2010, his novel Norwegian Wood was made into a Japanese film.
- In 2018, his short story "Barn Burning" was adapted into the critically acclaimed South Korean film Burning.
- The short story "Drive My Car" was made into a film that won an Academy Award in 2022.
- In 2022, six of his short stories were adapted into an animated feature film called Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman.
- In 2023, some of his short stories began to be adapted into a three-volume original English-language manga series.
His Personal Life
After winning his first award in 1979, Murakami didn't really try to meet other writers. He prefers to be a loner and doesn't enjoy being part of groups or literary circles. When he's writing a book, he relies on his wife, Yoko, who is always the first person to read his work.
He enjoys reading books by authors like Kazuo Ishiguro and Cormac McCarthy. He also likes some contemporary Japanese writers like Ryū Murakami and Banana Yoshimoto.
Haruki Murakami is a big fan of baseball and supports the Tokyo Yakult Swallows team. He says that watching a game in 1978 gave him the idea to write his first novel.
He also loves listening to music, especially classical and jazz. He became interested in jazz around age 15 after going to a concert. This led him to open his jazz bar, Peter Cat. Murakami believes that music, like writing, is a mental journey. He once wanted to be a musician but decided to become a writer because he wasn't good at playing instruments.
Murakami believes his unique, surreal books appeal to people during confusing or difficult times. He noted that his books became very popular in Russia when the Soviet Union was changing, and in Germany after the Berlin Wall fell.
His Views
Murakami has said that he is a "political person" but doesn't openly state his political messages. He sees himself as someone who stands "against the system," similar to George Orwell.
He believes it's natural for countries like China and Korea to still feel upset with Japan about its actions during wartime. He has said that Japanese people sometimes don't fully understand that they were also attackers in the past. Murakami thinks Japan should apologize clearly until other countries feel it's enough.
In 2015, he showed his support for same-sex marriage, which is not recognized in Japan. In 2021, during one of his radio shows, he criticized Japan's prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, for how he handled the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan. Murakami joked that the prime minister must have "extremely good eyes" to see an end to the pandemic when he himself couldn't.
In 2022, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Murakami called for peace. He created a special radio program featuring music that encouraged an end to the war and focused on the value of life.
See also
In Spanish: Haruki Murakami para niños
- Japanese literature
- Surrealism
- Weird fiction
