On January 19, the 166th Akutagawa Prize and Naoki Prize were announced.
It is still nice to receive an award from someone who is associated with someone who spent his or her college life in Kanazawa City.
Third time on the shortlist and longed for the award
Honobu Yonezawa is a 43-year-old native of Gifu Prefecture. He started writing original novels when he was in the second grade of junior high school, and after graduating from Gifu Hita High School, he entered the Faculty of Letters at Kanazawa University.
He started to publish his works on the Web as a sophomore in college, running an online novel site called 「Hanmuden」. (This site is now closed, so you can’t read his works from those days, unfortunately.)
After 「Mangan」 and 「10 meters before the truth」 were nominated for the Naoki Prize in 2014 and 2016, respectively, but did not win the award, he won the prize for the third time with 「Black Prison Castle」.
Incidentally, Akutagawa Prize winner Bunji Sunagawa and another Naoki Prize winner, Shogo Imamura, also won the prize for the third time after being nominated twice before. All three of them have received their awards with much anticipation. Congratulations to all three of them.
「Black Prison Castle」 = A fusion of historical fact and mystery. Interesting from many angles.
The award-winning 「Black Prison Castle」 is a highly acclaimed work that was also selected as the first place winner of 「This Mystery is Amazing」 for the year 2022.
The novel is based on the historical fact that Araki Murashige, who disobeyed Oda Nobunaga and holed up in 「Arioka Castle」, imprisoned Kuroda Kambei in prison when he came to urge him to change his mind.
Anyone who does a little research can understand this historical fact: an incident occurs at 「Arioka Castle」, which is under siege, and Kanpei Kuroda, who is in prison, solves it.
It’s like a fusion of historical fact + mystery.
The easy chair detective role of Kanbei Kuroda and the tricks unique to the Warring States period are also very interesting! The development of 「after the mystery is solved, another mystery is solved」, which is typical of Yonezawa’s works, also adds to the fun.
(*Easy chair detective = a detective who solves a case using only information and deductions without leaving the room)
Bookstores in the city have a special section immediately
To celebrate the award, bookstores in the city have set up special sections featuring not only 「Black Prison Castle」 but also past works, so those interested should pick up a copy!
I am sure you can see why Yonezawa’s works have completely conquered the four major mystery rankings.
