Makate Asai (朝井 まかて, Asai Makate) is a Japanese writer of historical fiction. She has won the Naoki Prize and the Oda Sakunosuke Prize, and two of her novels have been adapted for television by NHK.
Asai made her literary debut in 2008 with Mi sae hana sae (実さえ花さえ), which won the Shōsetsu Gendai Novel Newcomer Encouragement Prize from Kodansha.[2] She chose the pen name "Makate" to honor her Okinawan grandmother.[3] More novels followed, including the 2010 novel Chanchara (ちゃんちゃら) and the 2012 novel Nukemairu (ぬけまいる), which NHK later adapted into a television series starring Rena Tanaka, Rie Tomosaka, and Eriko Sato.[4]
In 2014 Asai won both the Naoki Prize and the Oda Sakunosuke Prize, but for different books. Her 2013 novel Renka (恋歌, Love Song), a story based on the life of the poet Nakajima Utako, won the 150th Naoki Prize, which she shared with Kaoruko Himeno.[5][6] Her book Oranda Saikaku (阿蘭陀西鶴), a story based on the life of the poet Ihara Saikaku, won the 31st Oda Sakunosuke Prize.[7]
Her novel Kurara (眩), about the relationship between the painter Katsushika Ōi and her father, the painter Hokusai, was published in 2016.[8]Kurara won the 22nd Gishū Nakayama Literature Prize, and was adapted into the 2017 NHK television movie Kurara: The Dazzling Life of Hokusai's Daughter (眩 ~北斎の娘~, Kurara ~Hokusai no Musume~) starring Aoi Miyazaki.[9][10]
^"直木賞受賞者一覧" (in Japanese). 日本文学振興会. Archived from the original on November 7, 2018. Retrieved August 17, 2018.
^"これまでの織田作之助賞受賞作一覧 1984~2013 年"(PDF). 大阪文学振興会 (Osaka Literature Promotion Institute) (in Japanese). Archived(PDF) from the original on June 23, 2018. Retrieved August 16, 2018.
^"中山義秀文学賞" (in Japanese). City of Shirakawa. Archived from the original on August 18, 2018. Retrieved August 16, 2018.
^"眩(くらら)~北斎の娘~" (in Japanese). NHK. Archived from the original on July 23, 2018. Retrieved August 16, 2018.