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Shibano Takumi

Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author, Editor, Fan.

(1926-2010) Japanese author, translator and critic. Shibano began writing sf as Rei Kozumi (a play on the Japanese version of "Cosmic Ray") while a high-school mathematics teacher, a job he quit in 1977 to become a full-time translator. He published his first short story in 1951. Later, 1969-1975, he published three sf juveniles, including Hokkyoku City no Hanran ["Revolt in North Pole City"] (1977). But his influence on Japanese sf lay more in his work as editor and publisher of the widely circulated Uchūjin ["Cosmic Dust"] (1957-2009), the first Japanese Fanzine, in which many stories by later-prominent sf writers – such as Sakyo Komatsu, Shinichi Hoshi and Yasutaka Tsutsui – were published; it reached #202 by the time of its publisher's death. Shibano chaired his country's first Convention in 1962; a one-off Fan Fund brought him to the 1968 US Worldcon. One of the most prominent figures in the Japanese sf community, he received many sf awards including a special committee award from the 1993 San Francisco Worldcon (see Hugo); the "Takumi Shibano Award", given since 1982 to people who have performed generous work in Fandom, was named after him. As a translator he specialized in Hard SF: most of Larry Niven's books as well as works by Poul Anderson, Hal Clement, James P Hogan and many more – over sixty books in all. His translations not only founded reputations, but re-established them, such as the case of his re-translation of E E Smith's Lensman series into Japanese more suitable for the twenty-first century (2002). Shibano also co-edited several anthologies of stories from Uchūjin with Takashi Ishikawa. He wrote the entry on Japan in the first and second editions of this encyclopedia, and lived to see the first Japanese Worldcon in 2007, at which he was Fan Guest of Honour. [PN/DRL/JonC]

Takumi Shibano

born Japan: 27 October 1926

died Japan: 16 January 2010

works as author

works as editor

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