Mitsuyo Kakuta

Mitsuyo Kakuta is a Japanese novelist and translator, born in 1967 in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, and a graduate of Waseda University's School of Letters, Arts and Sciences. She made her debut in 1990 with The Game of Happiness, which won the Kaien Newcomer Literature Award, and received the Naoki Prize in 2005 for Her on the Other Shore. Her work focuses largely on the struggles of contemporary women and on family relationships, told with delicate prose that reveals her characters' inner conflicts and struggles within everyday settings. The collection includes 13 of her works, such as The Invisible Woman (6 volumes), Air Garden, Her on the Other Shore, The Silent Garden, The House on the Slope, Night Flight, Talent (2 volumes), and What Is Love, spanning foreign literature, social fiction, and youth literature. Her acclaimed works The Eighth Day's Cicada and Paper Moon have also drawn wide attention.