Web site: Winter Sleep by Kenzo Kitakata.Synopsis of The Cage at JLPP (Japanese Literature Publishing Project).2009 - Japan Mystery Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement.

2006 - Shiba Ryotaro Prize: Suikoden ( Water Margin).

2004 - Yoshikawa Eiji Prize for Literature: Yōkashō ( Generals of the Yang Family).

1991 - Shibata Renzaburo Prize: Hagun no Hoshi ( Alkaid).

1985 - Mystery Writers of Japan Award for Best Novel: Kawaki no Machi ( City of Thirst).

1984 - Nominee for Mystery Writers of Japan Award for Best Novel: The Cage.

1983 - Japan Adventure Fiction Association Prize: The Cage.

1983 - Yoshikawa Eiji Prize for New Writers: Nemuri Naki Yoru ( Sleepless Night).

1982 - Japan Adventure Fiction Association Prize: Nemuri Naki Yoru ( Sleepless Night).

City of Refuge (original title: Nogare no Machi), trans.

The Cage (original title: Ori), trans.

Winter Sleep (original title: Fuyu no Nemuri), trans.

Ashes (original title: Bō no Kanashimi), trans.

Works in English translation Hardboiled novels He served as the 10th President of the Mystery Writers of Japan from 1997 to 2001. He studied law at Chuo University in the early 1970s. He lives in Abiko with his wife and two daughters.Is a Japanese novelist, especially known for his hardboiled novels. Patrick Sherriff publishes a monthly newsletter highlighting good fiction published in English about Japan. 5 of 100 books I intend to read and review in 2019. It was his first noir and it’s no crime that it wasn’t quite his best. That a few scenes seemed to drag a little and the presence of a kid perfect for kidnapping seemed to happen too fortuitously can be forgiven. I really enjoyed looking at the world through the perp’s eyes, not the detective’s, which seems to be a Kitakata trademark, and the femme fatale was well-done. Still, it’s worth reading on its own merits. So, we have an interesting anti-hero, though not as complex as the one in The Cage the cop on hIs tail is hard-ass but not as fleshed out as he becomes in The Cage the exploration of motivation was good but not as interesting as in Winter Sleep and the writing style was noir but not as noir as his masterpiece, Ashes. Because while there is nothing wrong with it as a well-written piece of Japanese noir, it’s just that the elements present were perfected in later novels. Perhaps I would have liked it more if it had been my first, not fourth, Kitakata. This is the first of Kitakata’s crime novels, originally published in Japanese in 1982, but the fourth (and to my knowledge final) one translated into English (in 2012).