Saburo Kawamoto

Saburo Kawamoto (川本 三郎, Kawamoto Saburō, born 15 July 1944) is a Japanese film and literary critic, as well as a professor at Rikkyo University.^[1]

After graduation from the University of Tokyo, he worked for the Asahi Newspaper company before leaving in 1972 to become a critic.^[2] He was one critic who helped to discover the talents of Haruki Murakami.^[3] He won the Suntory Prize for his book Taishū Genei in 1991, the Yomiuri Literature Award for Kafū and Tokyo in 1997, and the Itō Sei Literature Award for Hakushu Bōkei in 2012.^[4]

Around 1970 he became close to a student radical when covering him as a journalist. When that student attacked an officer of the Japanese Self-Defence Force in Asaka, Saitama, killing him, Kawamoto was arrested for spoliation of evidence.^{[citation needed]} He was convicted and given a sentence of probation.^{[citation needed]} He was fired from the Asahi Newspaper company.^{[citation needed]} Thereafter, he became a freelance writer.^[5] Nobuhiro Yamashita's film, My Back Page, is based on Kawamoto's essay about this affair.^[6]

Works

• Taisho illusions 大正幻影
• My Back Page: a 60's story　マイ・バック・ページ ある60年代の物語

References

1. "各種データ：立教関係者の著作紹介 | 立教大学". Rikkyo.ac.jp. Retrieved 3 November 2016.
2. "川本 三郎 『大正幻影』 サントリー学芸賞 サントリー文化財団". Suntory Gakugeishō. Suntory Foundation. Retrieved 17 November 2016.
3. Cahier magazine, August 1979
4. 日本人名大辞典+Plus, デジタル版. "川本三郎(かわもと さぶろう)とは - コトバンク". Kotobank (in Japanese). Asahi Shinbun. Retrieved 17 November 2016.
5. Kawamoto's essay My back page
6. "News for My Back Pages (2011)". IMDb.com. Retrieved 3 November 2016.