The Japan Foundation Awards 2023 Commemorative Events

The Japan Foundation Awards 2023 Recipient
OGAWA Yoko (Novelist)

(c) Kodansha

Since making her literary debut in 1988, Ms. OGAWA Yoko has devoted 35 years to authoring novels, creating excellent long and short stories one after the next. She has won awards including the Akutagawa Prize, the Yomiuri Literary Prize, the Tanizaki Junichiro Award, and the Noma Literary Prize, among others. Ms. Ogawa's novels, written in elegant Japanese, never cease to stir the imaginative capabilities of those who translate them into other languages, and as of mid-2023, 36 of her works have been translated into a total of 37 languages. Ms. Ogawa's works have resonated with readers throughout the world, making a major contribution to international mutual understanding through literature and the Japanese language.

Talk Session
OZAKI Mariko, literary critic

Ms. OZAKI Mariko was a professor at Waseda University's Faculty of Letters, Arts and Sciences after serving as a member of the editorial board and head of the cultural affairs department at the Yomiuri Shimbun's Tokyo headquarters. She was a recipient of the Japan National Press Club Award in 2016.
She also received the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology's Award for Fine Arts and the Nitta Jiro Literary Prize (新田次郎文学賞) for her book “A Secret Kingdom: A Critical Biography of Momoko Ishii (『ひみつの王国 評伝石井桃子』)” (2013, Shinchosha), and the Yomiuri Literary Prize for “Oe Kenzaburo’s 'Morality' 『大江健三郎の「義」』” (2022, Kodansha).

The Japan Foundation Awards 2023 Recipient
MIYAGI Satoshi (Stage Director / General Artistic Director of the Shizuoka Performing Arts Center)

(c) Ryota Atarashi

Mr. MIYAGI Satoshi creates festive spaces on the stage with his unique method of fusing physical movement, words, and music, and his productions have received international acclaim. In 1990, he founded the Ku Na’uka Theater Group, where he garnered attention for his unique approach to direction in which two actors play a single role, one speaking the lines and the other performing the movements. In 2007, he became the General Artistic Director of The Shizuoka Performing Arts Center (SPAC). He focuses on theater as a "window to the world" through the staging of his own works along with hosting productions from all over the world that sharply critique contemporary society. He received acclaim for his production of the Indian epic Mahabharata - Nalacharitam - at the Festival d’Avignon (France) in 2014 and the Greek tragedy Antigone at the same festival in 2017 for his approach to directing that fuses contemporaneous textual interpretation reflecting the Japanese view of life and death with the physical techniques and stylistic beauty of Asian theater.

Talk Session
MIYAGISHIMA Haruka, stage actor

(c) NAKAO Eiji

She completed her master's degree at the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, writing her thesis on Satoshi Miyagi's theatrical practice. She has had starring roles in productions such as SPAC’s Romeo and Juliet, the Shizuoka prefecture cultural program Princess Kaguya returns to Sacred Mount Fuji, and “Lunar Comet” made by French Equestrian Theatre Company Lunar Comet. She has also appeared in works directed by Satoshi Miyagi including Antigone, Mahabharata, Le Lièvre Blanc d’Inaba et des Navajos, and Demon Lake, among others. Based on her experience in exploring theater from both academic and practical perspectives, she has been involved in a variety of activities.