Ken'ichi Sakemi (酒見 賢一, Sakemi Ken'ichi, November 26, 1963 – November 7, 2023) was a Japanese writer.[1]
Sakemi is known for his novels with Chinese themes.[2]
And his work is renowned for his unbridled imagination, based on Chinese history but not restricted by it. His works have attracted a lot of attention from other fields and have been adapted into other formats, including manga, anime, and films.[3]
In 1992, he won the Atsushi Nakajima Memorial Prize for Bokkō and Rōkō ni ari.
Bokkō was nominated again for the Naoki Award, and was subsequently adapted into a manga and a live-action film.[1][3]
As for Bokkō, Studio Ghibli once considered making an anime film directed by Mamoru Oshii around 1991, and even created imageboards by Katsuya Kondō, but the plan fell through.[5][6]
With Kondo, he has also worked on an unfinished manga called D'arc: Jan-nu Daruku Den.[7]
In 2000, he won the Jiro Nitta Literary Award for Shūkōtan.[1]
Sakemi died on November 7, 2023, at the age of 59 due to respiratory failure.[1][8]
Style
Sakemi's first novel was a fantasy set in a fictional dynasty similar to China's, but since then he has increasingly used real Chinese history as his subject matter.[7] Nevertheless, he is renowned for his unrestrained imagination, while keeping historical facts in mind.[3]
Beyond China relations, he has also published works such as the military science fiction Seibo no butai and the Victorian-set Katarite no Jijō.[7]
At the time of the 1989 publication of Kōkyū Shōetsu, few other such works were set in a fictional empire in the Chinese style, with the emperor, the inner palace (residences of the consorts), officials and eunuchs as the prescribed setting. This led to the creation of many later works that were similarly set in a world with Chinese culture and customs, but with a free-flowing storyline that could be about anything and everything, without regard to historical fact.[2][7] The fact that that novel won the first Grand Prize also determined the unique character of the Japan Fantasy Novel Award, which has some fantasy, some horror, some speculative novel and some experimental fiction.[2] He influenced later writers such as Riku Onda.[9][10][11] His death brought him renewed attention as a writer who pioneered the subsequent Japanese fiction scene, which flourished with Chinese dynastic-style fantasy and mystery.[2]
A Japanese-Chinese-Korean co-production based on Hideki Mori's manga version, the film was released in Asia in 2006 and in Japan on February 3, 2007.[12]
Bokkō (Mohism Attacks) (墨攻), (Original story by Ken'ichi Sakemi, Illustration by Hideki Mori, scenario cooperation by Sentarō Kubota), complete in 11 volumes
A manga based on Bokkō. It was serialized in Big Comic from 1992 to 1996. It became an original storyline along the way, expanding on ideas from the novel.
Original manga work without a novel as a basis. It was serialized in Animage from the August 1994 issue to the August 1995 issue, and then stopped. Unfinished.
Rōkō ni Ari-Gankai Denki (In the Alley-The Legend of Yan Hui) (陋巷に在り-顔回伝奇), (Original story: Ken'ichi Sakemi, Manga: Jun Hanyunyū), complete in 3 volumes
A manga based on Rōkō ni Ari. It was serialized in the monthly web comic magazine "Digicomi Shincho com2" from 2007.
A manga based on Nakimushi Yowamushi Shokatsu Kōmei. It was serialized in Monthly Big Comic Spirits from the December 2017 issue to the July 2019 issue.
