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Biography
Born as Ryūnosuke Murakami (村上龍之助) in Sasebo, Nagasaki on February 19, 1952. The name Ryunosuke was taken from the main character in Daibosatsutoge a fiction by Nakazato Kaizan (1885–1944).
He attended primary, middle and senior high school in Sasebo. While a student in senior high, Murakami helped form a rock band, in which he was the drummer. After the band’s breakup, he went on to join the rugby club, which he found especially grueling. He soon left the rugby club and transferred to the school’s newspaper department. In the summer of his third year in senior high, Murakami and his colleagues barricaded the rooftop of his high school and he was placed under house arrest for three months. During this time, he had an encounter with the hippie culture which influenced him greatly.
Murakami graduated from high school in 1970, around which time he went on to form yet another rock band and produce 8-millimeter indie films.
Murakami went to Tokyo and enrolled in the silkscreen department in Gendaishichosha school of art, but dropped out halfway through the year. In October 1972, he moved to Fussa near the base of the U.S. army and was accepted into the Musashino Art University in the sculpture program.
Works
Murakami's first work, the short novel Almost Transparent Blue, written while he was still a student of Musashino Art University, deals with promiscuity and drug use among disaffected Japanese youth. Critically acclaimed as a new style of literature, it won the newcomer's literature prize in 1976 despite some observers decrying it as decadent. Later the same year, Blue won the Akutagawa Prize, going on to become a best seller. In 1980, Murakami published the much longer novel Coin Locker Babies, again to critical acclaim.
In 1980, Murakami received the 3rd Noma Liberal Arts New Member prize for his novel Coin Locker Babies. Afterward he wrote an autobiographical work 69. His next work Ai to Genzou no Fascism (1987) revolves around the struggle reforming Japan’s Survival of the Fittest model of society, by a secret society the "Hunting Society". His work in 1988, Topaz, is about a SM Girl’s radical expression of her sex,
Murakami’s story The World in Five Minutes From Now (1994) is written as a point of view in a parallel universe version of Japan, which got him nominated for the 30th Tanizaki Junichiro prize. In 1996 he continued his autobiography 69, and released the Murakami Ryu Movie and Novel Collection. He also won the Hirabayashitai Children’s literary prize. The same year, he wrote the novel Topaz II about a female high school student engaged in compensated dating activities, which later was adapted as a live action film Love and Pop by Anime director Hideaki Anno.
In 1998 he wrote the Psycho-horror styled story In the Miso Soup which won him the Yomiuri Literature Prize. In 1999 he became in the Editor in Chief of mail magazine JMM which discusses the ‘bubble’ economy of Japan.
In 2000, he wrote Parasites (Kyōsei Mushi) about a young hikikomori who is fascinated by war, which won him the 36th Tanizaki Junichiro Prize. The same year Kibō no Kuni no Exodus was written, a story about junior high students who lose their desire in being involved in normal Japanese society, and instead create a new society over the internet.
In 2001, he became involved in his friend Sakamoto Ryuichi’s group N.M.L. NO MORE LANDMINE, which involves the removal of landmines that are still buried in many countries around the world.
In 2004, Murakami announced the publication of 13 Year Old Hello Work, a work whose aim is to increase an interest in young people to go and find jobs and work. His next work Hontō wo deyo (2005) is about relations between Japan and Korea, which won him the 58th Noma Liberal Arts prize, and the 59th Mainichi Shuppon Culture Prize.
His novel Audition was adapted into a feature film by Takashi Miike. Murakami reportedly liked it so much he gave Miike his blessing to adapt Coin Locker Babies. The screen play was worked on by director Jordan Galland. However, Miike could not raise funding for the project. An adaptation directed by Michele Civetta is currently in production .
Murakami has played drums for a rock group called Coelacanth and hosted a TV talk show.
Selected bibliography
Year Japanese Title English Title Comments
1976 限りなく透明に近いブルー
Kagirinaku tōmeini chikai burū Almost Transparent Blue English translation by Nancy Andrew
1977 海の向こうで戦争が始まる
Umi no mukō de sensō ga hajimaru War Begins Beyond the Sea
1980 コインロッカー・ベイビーズ
Koinrokkā Beibīzu Coin Locker Babies English translation by Stephen Snyder, Published from Kodansha International Ltd., 1995
1986 走れ！タカハシ
Hashire! Takahashi Run! Takahashi
1987 69 sixty nine
Shikusutinain 69 English translation by Ralph F. McCarthy
1989 ラッフルズホテル
Raffuruzu Hoteru Raffles Hotel (novel)
1993 エクスタシー
Ekusutashī Ecstasy
1994 五分後の世界
Gofungo no Sekai The World in Five Minutes From Now
1994 ピアッシング
Piasshingu Piercing English translation by Ralph F. McCarthy. Published in English January 2007.
1995 KYOKO
Kyōko Kyoko French translation by Corinne Atlan
1997 イン ザ・ミソスープ
In za Misosūpu In the Miso Soup English translation by Ralph F. McCarthy. Published in English 2005.
ストレンジ・デイズ
Sutorenji Deizu Strange Days
1998 ライン
Rain Lines French translation ("Lignes") by Sylvain Cardonnel, Czech translation ("Čáry") by Jan Levora.
2000 共生虫
Kyōsei chū Parasites French translation by Sylvain Cardonnel
メランコリア
Merankoria Melancholia
2005 I am a Novelist short story published in The New Yorker
English translation by Ralph McCarthy
半島を出よ
Hanto Wo Deyo
2006 ダイアローグ 村上壟X伊藤穣一
Daiarōgu Murakami Ryū X Itō Jōichi Dialogue: Ryu Murakami X Joichi Ito
Filmography
Year Japanese Title English Title Comments
1979 限りなく透明に近いブルー
Kagirinaku tōmeini chikai burū Almost Transparent Blue Writer, Director
1983 だいじょうぶマイ・フレンド
Daijōbu mai furendo All Right, My Friend Writer, Director
1989 ラッフルズホテル
Raffuruzu Hoteru Raffles Hotel Writer, Director
1992 トパーズ
Topāzu Tokyo Decadence Writer, Director
1996 ラブ＆ポップ
Rabu & Poppu Love & Pop Writer
1999 オーディション
Ōdishon Audition Novel
2000 KYOKO Because of You Writer, Director
2001 走れ！イチロー
Hashire! Ichirō Writer
2003 昭和歌謡大全集
Shōwa kayō daizenshū Karaoke Terror: The Complete Japanese Showa Songbook Novel
2004 シクスティナイン
Shikusutinain 69 Writer
2006 ポプラル！
Popular! Executive Producer
2008 コインロッカー・ベイビーズ
Koinrokkā Beibīzu Coin Locker Babies Writer