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Kawamata Chiaki

Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.

(1948-    ) Japanese author whose debut work "Shita" ["Tongue"] (January 1972 NW-SF) was published while he was still working as a copywriter at the Advertising agency Hakuhodo. In the same year, he began writing SF criticism with "Ashita wa Docchi da!" ["Which Way is Tomorrow?"], which ran until 1975 in S-F Magazine and was subsequently collated in Yume no Kotoba, Kotoba no Yume ["Words of Dreams, Dreams of Words"] (nonfiction coll 1983). He became a full-time writer from 1980, with occasional ventures into teaching as a lecturer in Fantasy Literature at Ikebukuro Community College and Shukutoku University.

Other notable works include the sequence beginning with Kaseijintachi no Zenya ["Eve of the Martians"] (July 1979 S-F Magazine; fixup as Kaseijin Senshi 1984), in which Uplift causes the extinction of the Terran kangaroo, but also creates the first of a new race on Mars. It won Kawamata a Seiun Award. In other media, his best-known work is the Ajin Senshi ["Bastard Warrior"] series, in which a half-breed child of human and Alien parents becomes the last hope of Earth against the Manjidara Galactic Empire. The first book in the series was adapted into the Anime Ajin Senshi (1990), directed by Tsuneo Tominaga. Kawamata would also adapt anime in the opposite direction, writing the novel Tie to Arion (1986). He is also credited as the storyliner of Dragon Quest Retsuden: Roto no Monshō ["Dragon Quest Biography: Emblem of Roto"] (graph September 1991-July 1997 Shōnen Gangan) a Manga Tie to the Dragon Quest series of computer games. However, Kawamata's precise level of involvement in the project, written by Junji Koyanagi and drawn by Kamui Fujiwara, is unclear.

Another Tie of note is Young Indy Jones: Shōen no Shi ["Young Indiana Jones and the Gunpowder Poem"] (1993), set during World War One, in which the hero of Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) (see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull) recalls his youthful encounter with Siegfried Sassoon at the Battle of the Somme (see George Lucas). Since the 1980s, Kawamata's career has drifted ever deeper into the realm of military fiction (works not listed here, but see link below), particularly concerning World War Two events such as the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the war in the South Pacific. This strand of his knowledge also spun off into a factual work Jūni Senkan Monogatari ["Stories of Twelve Battleships"] (nonfiction 1998). While much of Kawamata's genre output translated modern warfare into interstellar conflict (see Military SF), some of his work demonstrates a far deeper concern. In particular, Genshi-gari ["Poetic Vision Hunting"] (1984; trans by Thomas Lamarre and Kazuko Y Behrens as Death Sentences 2012) mounts a powerful defence of the power of the written word to change the world. Its protagonist, a murderous thought-control officer in a totalitarian state, is disturbed and ultimately transformed by an encounter with surrealist literature (see Absurdist SF; Fahrenheit 451). [JonC]

see also: Michiaki Satō.

Chiaki Kawamata

born Otaru, Japan: 4 December 1948

works (selected)

series

Ajin Senshi

  • Ajin Senshi ["Bastard Warrior"] (Tokyo: Tokuma Shoten, 1981) [Ajin Senshi: pb/]
  • Shinwa Seidan ["Myth Star Squad"] (Tokyo: Tokuma Shoten, 1983) [Ajin Senshi: pb/]
  • Chikyū Seifuku ["Earth Conquest"] (Tokyo: Tokuma Shoten, 1985) [Ajin Senshi: pb/]

Seikaryūdo

  • Seikaryūdo ["Star Hunter"] (Tokyo: Kōdansha, 1985) [Seikaryūdo: binding unknown/]
  • Ningen Bokujō ["Human Ranch"] (Tokyo: Kōdansha, 1985) [Seikaryūdo: binding unknown/]
  • Isei Tōmei ["Mutant Alliance"] (Tokyo: Kōdansha, 1986) [Seikaryūdo: binding unknown/]

individual titles

  • Gensō Wakusei ["Fantasy Planet"] (Tokyo: Tokuma Shoten, 1982) [pb/]
  • Hoshiboshi no Koe ["Voices of the Stars"] (Tokyo: Tokuma Shoten, 1982) [pb/]
  • Ningyō Toshi ["Puppet City"] (Tokyo: Kōfūsha, 1983) [binding unknown/]
  • Genshi-gari ["Poetic Vision Hunting"] (Tokyo: Chūōkōron-sha, 1984) [pb/]
    • Death Sentences (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Minnesota University Press, 2012) [trans by Thomas Lamarre and Kazuko Y Behrens of the above: hb/]
  • Majū Tairiku ["Magic Beast Continent II"] (Tokyo: Kadokawa Shoten, 1984) with Gō Nagai [binding unknown/]
  • Tatsu no Natsu ["Dragon's Summer"] (Tokyo: Tokuma Shoten, 1984) [binding unknown/]
  • Sōseiki ["Stellar Genesis"] (Tokyo: Hayakawa Shobō, 1985) [binding unknown/]
  • Arion Iden ["An Alternate Tale of Arion"] (Tokyo: Tokuma Shoten, 1986) [binding unknown/]
  • Akadō no Makai: Devil Kabira ["Red Way of the Demon World: Devil Kabira"] (Tokyo: Tokuma Shoten, 1986) [binding unknown/]
  • Saigo no Shinjinrui ["Last of the New Breed"] (Tokyo: Chūō Kōron-sha, 1986) [binding unknown/]
  • Uchūkō Monogatari ["Spaceport Stories"] (Tokyo: Shūeisha, 1986) [binding unknown/]
  • Jūkai Sōryū Heidan ["Knights Company of the Magic World"] (Tokyo: Chūō Kōron-sha, 1986) [binding unknown/]
  • Iseijintachi ["Mutants"] (Tokyo: Kobunsha, 1987) [binding unknown/]
  • Jikan Teikoku ["Time Empire"] (Tokyo: Kadokawa Shoten, 1987) [binding unknown/]
  • Wakusei Oneiros no Densetsu ["The Legend of Planet Oneiros"] (Tokyo: Shinchōsha, 1987) [binding unknown/]
  • Kasei Sōkidan ["Martian Armored Company"] (Tokyo: Hayawa Shobō, 1987) [binding unknown/]
  • Yōjūmachi ["Street of the Night Beasts"] (Tokyo: Kōbunsha, 1988) [binding unknown/]
  • Mumajo ["Phantom Castle"] (Tokyo: Chūō Kōron-sha, 1989) [binding unknown/]
  • Amanogawa no Kantan ["The Ballads of Heaven's River"] (Tokyo: Futabasha, 1990) [binding unknown/]
  • Dragon Quest Retsuden: Roto no Monshō ["Dragon Quest Biography: Emblem of Roto"] (Tokyo: Enix, 1991) with Kamui Fujiwara [graph: in 21 volumes: pb/Kamui Fujiwara]
  • Young Indy Jones: Shōen no Shi ["Young Indiana Jones and the Gunpowder Poem"] (Tokyo: Bungei Shunjū, 1993) [tie to Young Indiana Jones: pb/]
  • Kyōryū-Ō ["Dinosaur King"] (Tokyo: Square Enix, 1994) with Sakura Mizuki [graph: pb/Sakura Mizuki]
  • Prince of Wales ni Sasagu ["Sacrifice the Prince of Wales"] (Tokyo: Jitsugyō no Nihonsha, 1995) [binding unknown/]
  • Tsubasa ni Hi no Maru ["A Sun Disc on Their Wings"] (Tokyo: Kadokawa Shoten, 2006) [in three volumes: pb/]
  • Teikoku Kaigun no Shinjitsu ["The Truth About the Imperial Navy"] (Tokyo: Gakken Plus, 2013) [pb/]
  • Kasei no Hakuja Densetsu: Seikai Denki ["A Martian Legend of the White Snake: Tales of the Star Worlds"] (Tokyo: Chūō Kōron-sha, 2017) [pb/]

collections

nonfiction

links

previous versions of this entry



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