Masamitsu Miyagitani 宮城谷昌光 (1945–) bounced from job to job for years after college, including working at a publishing company and opening his own English school before finally stepping onto the literary stage in his mid-forties. He was mentored by author Masaaki Tachihara, who led him to focus on the function of kanji (Chinese characters) in Japanese writing, and he was spurred by the distinguished scholar of Chinese literature Shizuka Shirakawa to read the Chinese classics and study early Chinese characters. These interests led him to try his hand at historical fiction set in China. He made his literary debut in 1990 with the novel Tenku no fune (Boat across the Sky), portraying the Xia Dynasty—the earliest dynasty to be described in ancient Chinese records. The work was awarded the Nitta Jiro Literary Prize and nominated for the Naoki Prize. The following year he won the Naoki for his portrayal of the legendary femme fatale Princess Xia of Zheng in his novel Kaki shunju (The Spring and Autumn of Princess Xia), securing his reputation as a historical novelist of the first rank. Other works include Choji (Chong'er, 1993) and Gakuki (Yue Yi, 1996). More recently he has embarked on a monumental serialization of Sangokushi (The Three Kingdoms), and has also written historical novels set in Japan.
