On June 17, judges awarded the latest Akutagawa Prize for literature to two novels. Bari Sanko, “extreme mountain climbing” (Japanese edition; note: affiliate link) by Matsunaga Sanzo tells a tale about an oddball group of mountaineers. Meanwhile, Sanshouo no Shijuku-nichi, “the 49th day of the salamander (Japanese edition), by Asahina Aki focuses on conjoined sisters who others think are a single person.
There has been no shortage of excitement and controversy around the highly anticipated literary award in recent years. Just this January, in the previous edition of the award, winning novel Tokyo-To Dojo-To by Qudan Rie (Japanese edition) stirred a buzz for its writing process. In a novel that intensely thematizes issues of technology and artificial intelligence, Qudan used ChatGPT to help write passages in the story, passages that she deliberately sets up as written by an AI narrator. The allure and importance of the award means that every winner skyrockets into literary fame—while getting heaps of scrutiny.
So what exactly is the Akutagawa Prize? And how does it shape Japan’s literary landscape?
The Akutagawa Prize
The Akutagawa Prize is the most prestigious, most celebrated, and the most closely-watched literary award in Japan. Named after Japanese literary legend Ryunosuke Akutagawa, the award honors “new” writers of “pure” literature. (Read more on both of these criteria later).
Winners receive 1 million yen (USD $6,352) and a commemorative pocket watch. The award cycle happens twice a year—in January and July. However, sometimes judges opt to not select any story or author.
The award plays a large, and perhaps even excessive, role in Japan’s literary and publishing scene. These ripple effects extend abroad, where works that have won the prize get prioritized for translation at the expense of seemingly everything else.
Origins of the award
In the Meiji and Taisho eras, when Japan’s highbrow literary and artistic scene was flourishing prior to wartime censorship, novels were largely serialized in newspapers. Starting in the 1890s and early 1900s, newspapers and magazines began to create literary prizes. They collected submissions from authors, awarded a winner, and then printed said winner in the paper. This system, known as kensho shosetsu (prize-winning novels), was the main way that literary works garnered prestige and recognition prior to the establishment of major literary awards.
This system changed in 1934. Kikuchi Kan, founder of the prestigious literary magazine Bungeishunju, decided to establish two literary awards. He created the Naoki Prize, awarded to a “rising author of popular literary art.” Then, the Akutagawa Prize, awarded to “a rising author of pure literature.” The official announcement was released in the January 1935 issue of Bungeishunju Magazine. It established a complete system for the award and a panel of judges that consisted of authors and critics with long ties to Bungeishunju. The panel included famous authors, such as Tanizaki Junichiro and Kawabata Yasunari.
The award had immense caché from the get-go. As historian Edward Mack describes, the Akutagawa Prize did more than become a “new Dragon Gate to the literary establishment.” In fact, it created a whole mental complex for authors who became obsessed with winning it. Some writers—most notably Dazai Osamu—became so obsessed with winning the award that they were nearly psychologically broken by their desire for it.
Key characteristics
The award has primarily two criteria. That the winner is 1) a “rising” author. And 2) that the novel is “pure literature.”
Both of these criteria, of course, are quite vague. Some authors have won the Akutagawa Prize for one of their very first novels, while others won the award more than ten or even fifteen years into their career. For example, Convenience Store Woman bestseller Sayaka Murata (English edition; Japanese edition) won the award for her tenth novel.
The definition of jyunbungaku or ‘pure’ literature is even more contentious. Typically, the term jyunbungaku refers to writings in an expressive literary style for the sake of art rather than entertainment. In Japan, that means writing in the vein of authors such as Natsume Soseki, Mishima Yukio, and Oe Kenzaburo. From an American perspective, you can imagine an award established in the tradition of William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway and won by authors like Saul Bellow and Thomas Pynchon.
That doesn’t mean the definitions or borders of what is “art” are at all obvious. Throughout the Akutagawa Prize’s history, its selections have often crossed into controversy with winners outside of the traditional establishment’s box. It’s not exaggeration to say that the judges of the Akutagawa Prize actively shape what can be considered as high art and high literature.
Another important tidbit is that the Akutagawa Prize does not directly evaluate submissions from authors. Judges evaluate novels that have already been published in Japan’s major literary magazines: Bungeishunju, Bungakukai, Shincho, Subaru and Gunzo. These magazines have their own selection processes to find and publish manuscripts, adding a layer of both quality assurance and gatekeeping.
Simply an economic tool?
One of the major critiques levied against the Akutagawa Prize is that it is simply a tool to drive book sales. Of course, an award with considerable prestige being announced twice a year has nothing but positive effects on the literary and publishing industry. The prize drives sales for the nominees and the winners alike.
The Akutagawa Prize is a critical factor in publisher marketing strategies. Masumi Abe El-Khoury notes that some past controversial winners—including 2003’s winners, nineteen year-old Wataya Risa and twenty-year old Kanehara Hitomi—may have won explicitly for the sales boom that comes along with trendy young writers.
If so, the judges chose right. Bookshops reported incredible streams of customers after the 2003 announcement.
The allegation that judges awarded these two young female writers for sales purposes is undoubtedly tinted with sexism. But given how deeply gender inequality and sexism is ingrained in Japanese society, the Akutagawa Prize has been surprisingly kind to female authors. While only 12 of the first 80 winners were women, 46 women out of 90 authors have won since.
Minority writers have also occasionally broken into the elite literary circle. Three Zainichi Korean authors, one Chinese author, and one Taiwanese author have all won the award. Mixed race, Swiss, and Iranian authors have all also been nominated.
The importance of the committee
The judging committee consists of first-rate winners. Today, the committee includes well-known authors Ogawa Yoko, Kawakami Hiromi, Kawakami Mieko, and Hirano Keichiro. While the lineup is balanced in terms of gender, it isn’t particularly age-balanced, featuring three authors 47 to 56 years old and six authors between 63 and 70 years old.
Recent winners include Li Kotomi’s feminist utopian novel Higanbana ga Saku Shima (“the island where the red spider lilies bloom”; Japanese edition) and Rin Usami’s tale of otaku and addiction, Idol, Burning (English edition; Japanese edition). Book reviewer and critic Saori Kuramoto notes that more prizes lately have been given to novels that address contemporary social and political issues. The prize also seems to target more novels that are relatively easy to read for ordinary readers.
This session of the Akutagawa Prize is perhaps most notable for stretching out the definition of ‘pure literature’. Matsunaga explicitly stated that he’s interested in writing accessible work for a wide audience. Asahina is a doctor who uses his medical expertise to portray the life of conjoined twins.
It’s important to keep in mind that there’s more (much more) to Japanese literature than the Akutagawa Prize. But the prize is here to stay, and has offered up three thought-provoking, eloquently-written novels this year alone. Only the judges can say what’s coming next to the prize, and to the future of Japanese writing.
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Sources
芥川賞に朝比奈さん、松永さん 直木賞は一穂さん. Jiji
Accounting for Taste: Creation of the Akutagawa and Naoiki Prizes for Literature. Edward Mack, University of Washington
EDITORS’ INTENTIONS AND AUTHORS’ DESIRES: HOW JUNBUNGAKU AFFECTS THE AKUTAGAWA PRIZE AND JAPAN’S COMMERCIAL LITERARY WORLD. Masumi Abe El-Khoury, The University of British Columbia
