Taichi Yamada

For the Japanese Olympic rower, see Taichi Yamada (rower).

Taichi Yamada (山田 太一, Yamada Taichi, b. June 6, 1934) is a Japanese screenwriter and novelist. His real name is Taichi Ishizaka (石坂 太一, Ishizaka Taichi).

Career

Born in Asakusa, Tokyo, Yamada attended Waseda University before entering the Shōchiku film studios, where he trained as an assistant director under Keisuke Kinoshita. He left the company at age 30 to focus on writing scripts for television dramas, penning such successful series as Kishibe no arubamu and Fuzoroi no ringotachi. He has also written scripts for film and the stage.

As a novelist, his novel Ijintachi to no natsu (異人たちとの夏), published in 1987, won the Yamamoto Shūgorō Prize. It was translated into English, in 2004, as Strangers. Another Yamada novel, In Search of a Distant Voice, was translated and published in 2006 from a novel originally published in Japan in 1989. A third Yamada novel, I Haven't Dreamed of Flying for a While (飛ぶ夢をしばらく見ない, Tobu yume o shibaraku minai), was translated into English and published in 2008.

Selected works

Television

• Kishibe no arubamu (1977)
• Omoide zukuri (1981)
• Fuzoroi no ringotachi (1983)
• Fuzoroi no ringotachi II (1985)
• Fuzoroi no ringotachi III (1991)
• Fuzoroi no ringotachi IV (1997)

Film

• Final Take (キネマの天地 Kinema no Tenchi) (1986)
• Childhood Days (少年時代 Shōnen jidai) (1990)

Literature

• I Haven't Dreamed of Flying for a While (飛ぶ夢をしばらく見ない, Tobu yume wo shibaraku minai) (1985)
• Strangers (異人たちとの夏, Ijintachito no natsu) (1987)
• In Search of a Distant Voice (遠くの声を捜して, Toku no koe wo sagashite) (1989)

External links

• Yamada's site (in English)
• Taichi Yamada at J'Lit Books from Japan (in English)