Natsuko Kuroda

Kuroda was born in 1937 in Tokyo, Japan, and attended Waseda University.^[1] While at Waseda University she started the journal Sajo (Sandcastles), where she published her fiction.^[2] She graduated from Waseda University with a degree in Japanese, then worked various jobs as a teacher, administrator, and copy editor while continuing to write fiction.^[3]

In 1963, her story "Mari" ("Ball") won the 63rd Yomiuri Shimbun Short Story Newcomer Prize.^[4] For decades, Kuroda wrote stories that were published but did not win recognition in the form of literary awards.^[1][5] In 2012, nearly fifty years after her previous literary award, Kuroda won the Waseda Bungaku new writer competition for her experimental story a b sango, which was written mostly in hiragana rather than kanji, composed horizontally rather than vertically, and used no names or pronouns.^[6] The next year, a b sango won the 148th Akutagawa Prize, making Kuroda, at the age of 75, the oldest winner in the prize's history.^[7] The Akutagawa Prize committee was not unanimous in its decision, but committee members commended Kuroda's experimental style.^[8] In 2013, her story Kanjutai no odori, which she had written many years before a b sango, was published in book form.^[5]