Shichirō Fukazawa


Shichirō Fukazawa was a Japanese author and guitarist.

Biography

Fukazawa was born in Isawa, Yamanashi, Japan. His first novel, '' in 1958,
and again by Shōhei Imamura in 1983.
Imamura's film won the Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or.

Shimanaka Incident

In 1960, the literary magazine Chūōkōron published his satire Furyū mutan. In it the narrator dreams that leftists take over the Imperial Palace and behead Crown Prince Akihito and Princess Michiko before an enthusiastic crowd. This story provoked fury in the Imperial Household Agency and among Japanese ultra-nationalists.
On February 1, 1961, in response to the story, Kazutaka Komori, a seventeen-year-old rightist, broke into the home of Shimanaka Hoji, Chūōkōron's president, killed his maid with a sword and severely wounded his wife. Fukazawa went into hiding and was little seen in public afterwards.
The aftermath of the Shimanaka incident meant that criticism of the Imperial Family, and discussion of the role or existence of the Emperor, became taboo.

Selected prizes