Toshinari Masuda

Toshinari Masuda (増田 俊也) is a Japanese novelist, critic, and visiting professor of Nagoya University of Arts.

In his 1600-page nonfiction piece, Why Masahiko Kimura Didn't Kill Rikidozan, he used a distinct writing style where he used himself as one of the main characters of the story.

Some criticized Masuda's depiction of Masahiko Kimura, saying it was biased in his favor, but writers such as Baku Yumemakura, Keiichiro Hirano, Hiroyuki Itsuki, Riku Onda, and Yoshiko Sakurai said they enjoyed the book.

Many of his works have been made into manga.

Shatoon/Brown bear Forest was published in Business Jump (in three volumes), Why Masahiko Kimura Didn't Kill Rikidozan was published in Weekly Populous under the title KIMURA/manga version (in 13 volumes), and Memories of Nanatei Judo was also published in Big Comic Original (in three volumes).

He started working as a newspaper reporter at the Hokkai Times in 1989.

In 1992, he started working at Chunichi Shimbun to become a reporter for the Sports Department.

After winning the Grand Prize for the This mystery is great! Award in 2006, he started expanding his work into other genres such as nonfiction, essays, and criticism.

Later, he won the Sōichi Ōya Nonfiction Award for his work, Why Masahiko Kimura Didn't Kill Rikidozan.

Born in Aichi Prefecture.

Graduated from Asahigaoka High School.

Two years after graduating high school, he enrolled in Hokkaido University, and during his stay there, he joined the judo club where experienced the newaza-centered Nanatei Judo, which follows the Kosen Judo style.

One of his seniors in the Hokkaido University Judo Club is Masao Kosuge, who was the director of Asahiyama Zoo.... Because he wanted to become a polar bear ecologist, he wanted to join the brown bear research group at Hokkaido University in addition to the judo club, but gave up because he could not balance his work with the judo club.

In this senior year, after his final Nanatei Judo tournament, he retired from the club and dropped out of college.

In 2006, after winning the grand prize for the This mystery is great! Award for his work, Shatoon/Brown bear Forest, manga version, Masuda became an author.

The inspiration for this piece came from the rage he felt when he was part of an environmental protection movement group back in college, fighting the forced logging of the Shiretoko virgin forests.

In 2012, he won both the 43rd Soichi Oya Nonfiction Award and the 11th Shincho Document Award for his book Why Masahiko Kimura Didn't Kill Rikidozan.

He was a finalist for the Sogen SF Short Story Prize, and also showed a slapstick writing style in "Attack of the Saturn People", which was featured in NOVA: A Newly Written Japanese SF Collection 7 (published in 2012).

On the other hand, his autobiography novel, Memories of Nanatei Judo, is a novel based on his experience as amember of the Hokkaido University Judo club featuring both real and fictional characters.

Masuda started this piece on a memo pad when his fellow judo club member died unexpectedly.

There are also other characters in the novel modeled after those who had died.

He said the novel was like a "Requiem for those who aren't with us anymore" in an interview.

In 2013, he was nominated as a finalist for the 4th Yamada Futaro Award for his work Memories of Nanatei Judo.

In April 2016, Masuda took early retirement from the Chunichi Shimbun, where he had worked for 25 years, and became a full-time writer.

In 2017, he won the second "Books About Hokkaido Award" for his work, "Hokkai Times Story.”

He admires García Márquez, Milan Kundera, and has mentioned Shichio Shiono, Yasutaka Tsutsui, Robert B. Parker, Kurt Vonnegut, Truman Capote, Hemingway, and Dostoevsky as his favorite authors.

His debut novel, Shatoon/Brown bear Forest, is an entertaining piece influenced by Steven Spielberg, and it also received attention from creators of other genres such as Hideaki Sorachi and Hitoshi Iwaaki.