Niwa was born in Mie Prefecture, the eldest son of a priest in the Pure Land sect of Buddhism. He grew up at Sōgen-ji, a temple in Yokkaichi near Nagoya. After his graduation from Waseda University, he reluctantly entered the hereditary priesthood there but quit two years later, at the age of 29, in order to become a writer, walking out of the temple grounds on 10 April 1932 and heading back to Tokyo. He was supported by his girlfriend until their marriage in 1935. During this time he published Sweetfish, serialised in Bungeishunjū, and the novelSuperfluous Flesh. Niwa's work was controversial and, during World War II, two of his novels were banned for immorality. He worked as a war correspondent in China and New Guinea, accompanied Rear Admiral Gunichi Mikawa's Eighth Fleet and was on board the flagship Chōkai during the Battle of Savo Island on 9 August 1942. He was wounded at Tulagi. These experiences inspired Naval Engagement and Lost Company, both censored. After the war Niwa became an extremely prolific author of more than 80 novels, 100 volumes of short stories, and 10 volumes of essays. His most celebrated short story was The Hateful Age, about a family terrorised by a senile grandmother, which enjoyed such popularity that the title became a phrase in the language, for a time. The novel The Buddha Tree uses his unhappy childhood at Sōgen-ji as a backdrop. When he was eight years old his mother eloped with an actor from a Kansai Kabuki company; an event that greatly traumatised him. In this novel the story is elaborated fictionally. Later works include, from 1969, a five-volume biography of Shinran, the founder of the Pure Land sect, and in 1983 an eight-volume work on Rennyo, a 15th-century monk who died on a pilgrimage to India. In 1965 Niwa was elected a member of the Japan Art Academy, and the following year he was elected as Chairman of the Japanese Writers' Association, a position he held for many years. Niwa encouraged fellow members to play golf, organised health insurance, and bought land for a writers' cemetery. He won the 19thYomiuri Prize and was awarded the Order of Culture in 1977. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 1986. He was married twice and had one son and one daughter, Keiko Honda, who described his decline in Days of Care. He died of pneumonia in 2005.
