Sakyo Komatsu’s Followers (35)

Sakyo Komatsu

Born

in Osaka, Japan

January 28, 1931

Died

July 26, 2011

Genre

Science Fiction

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Born Minoru "Sakyo" Komatsu in Osaka, he was a graduate of Kyoto University where he studied Italian literature. After graduating, he worked at various jobs, including as a magazine reporter and a writer for stand-up comedy acts.

Komatsu's writing career began in the 1960s. Reading Kōbō Abe and Italian classics made Komatsu feel modern literature and science fiction are the same.

In 1961, he entered a science-fiction writing competition: "Peace on Earth" was a story in which World War II does not end in 1945 and a young man prepares to defend Japan against the Allied invasion. Komatsu received an honourable mention and 5000 yen.

He won the same competition the following year with the story, "Memoirs of an Eccentric Time Traveller". His first Born Minoru "Sakyo" Komatsu in Osaka, he was a graduate of Kyoto University where he studied Italian literature. After graduating, he worked at various jobs, including as a magazine reporter and a writer for stand-up comedy acts.

Komatsu's writing career began in the 1960s. Reading Kōbō Abe and Italian classics made Komatsu feel modern literature and science fiction are the same.

In 1961, he entered a science-fiction writing competition: "Peace on Earth" was a story in which World War II does not end in 1945 and a young man prepares to defend Japan against the Allied invasion. Komatsu received an honourable mention and 5000 yen.

He won the same competition the following year with the story, "Memoirs of an Eccentric Time Traveller". His first novel, The Japanese Apache, was published two years later and sold 50,000 copies.

In the West he is best known for the novels Japan Sinks (1973) and Sayonara Jupiter (1982). Both were adapted to film, Tidal Wave (1973) and Bye Bye Jupiter (1984). The story "The Savage Mouth" was translated by Judith Merril and has been anthologized.

At the time of publication, his apocalyptic vision of a sunk Japan wiped out by shifts incurred through geographic stress worried a Japan still haunted by the atomic devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He was inspired to write it thinking of what would happen if the nationalistic Japanese lost their land, and ironically prefigured the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami that triggered a nuclear plant disaster decades later on March 11, 2011 - the result of which he was interested in "to see how Japan would evolve" after the catastrophe.

Komatsu was involved in organizing the Japan World Exposition in Osaka Prefecture in 1970. In 1984, Komatsu served as a technical consultant for a live concert in Linz, Austria by Japanese electronic composer Isao Tomita. He won the 1985 Nihon SF Taisho Award. Komatsu was one of two Author Guests of Honor at Nippon 2007, the 65th World Science Fiction Convention in 2007 in Yokohama, Japan. This was the first Worldcon to be held in Asia.

With Shin'ichi Hoshi and Yasutaka Tsutsui, Komatsu was considered one of the masters of Japanese science fiction.

Komatsu died shortly after the destruction that followed the themes of his first and hugely successful novel. In the issue of his quarterly magazine published on July 21, Komatsu said he hoped to see how his country would evolve after the catastrophe. "I had thought I wouldn't mind dying any day," he wrote. "But now I'm feeling like living a little bit longer and seeing how Japan will go on hereafter." He died five days after publication, aged 80. ...more

Combine Editions
Sakyo Komatsu’s books

Average rating: 3.64 · 1,885 ratings · 320 reviews · 56 distinct works • Similar authors

	Japan Sinks 3.54 avg rating — 849 ratings — published 1966 — 44 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Virus: The Day of Resurrection by Sakyo Komatsu, Daniel Huddleston (Translator) 3.70 avg rating — 255 ratings — published 1964 — 12 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Rytdienos grobikai by Sakyo Komatsu, Sakio Komacu, Arvydas Ališauskas (Translator) 3.31 avg rating — 26 ratings — published 1965 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Jepang Tenggelam! Vol. 1 by Sakyo Komatsu, Ishiki Tokihiko 3.44 avg rating — 16 ratings — published 2006	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	日本沈没（上） by Sakyo Komatsu, 小松左京 3.64 avg rating — 14 ratings — published 1973 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Jepang Tenggelam! Vol. 3 by Sakyo Komatsu, Ishiki Tokihiko 3.54 avg rating — 13 ratings — published 2006	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Jepang Tenggelam! Vol. 2 by Sakyo Komatsu, Ishiki Tokihiko 3.33 avg rating — 12 ratings — published 2006	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Jepang Tenggelam! Vol. 4 by Sakyo Komatsu, Ishiki Tokihiko 3.55 avg rating — 11 ratings — published 2010	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Jepang Tenggelam! Vol. 5 by Sakyo Komatsu, Ishiki Tokihiko 3.55 avg rating — 11 ratings — published 2010	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Jepang Tenggelam! Vol. 7 by Sakyo Komatsu, Ishiki Tokihiko 3.60 avg rating — 10 ratings — published 2010	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Quotes by Sakyo Komatsu (?)

“Could these wonderful inventions have never been created without first going down the road of armaments and warfare? Was it acceptable that we scholars accepted this as fate—as ‘civilization’s capitalism—the unavoidable state of the utilitarian stage,’ and simply cast our hopes on the future?”
― Sakyo Komatsu, Virus: The Day of Resurrection

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“Ultimately, we lacked the courage to face up to our own true selves—our bare forms noble though petty, everything though nothing, almighty though powerless, filled with all the cruelty of matter and all the infinite kindness of spirit. Human, all too human.”
― Sakyo Komatsu, Virus: The Day of Resurrection

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“The deep darkness of good-natured humans, which causes the noble things of humanity to spoil—the affection for a worn-out, grimy lifestyle, the quarrels between husbands and wives, the cronyish, bureaucratic formalism. What foolish things we humans have consumed ourselves with! Overlaying these most trivial of things with our joy and anger and sorrow and pleasure! This is … this is simply pitiable.”
― Sakyo Komatsu, Virus: The Day of Resurrection

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¿Qué novela ACTUAL leemos en enero-febrero de 2025?

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Japan Sinks, de Sakyo Komatsu

20 votes, 31.7%

63 total votes

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Sakyo Komatsu’s Followers (35)

Sakyo Komatsu

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