Mizushima Hiro’s debut novel “KAGEROU” has been netting increasing interest after it was discovered to have won the prestigious “Poplar Publishing Grand Prize for Fiction” award. The book already became a bestseller in terms of pre-sales alone, with over 430,000 copies purchased before it became available. Yet malicious rumors have been floating around that Mizushima’s literary achievements were all based on his previous life as a famous actor.
In light of the fact that the book finally saw its publication release on December 15th, Yonmiuri News contacted its author, who discussed his thoughts about the rumors for the very first time. Mizushima revealed how he struggled with his feelings between joy in releasing the book, and confusion because of the clamor.
Mizushima had actually wrote “KAGEROU” under his pen name (in reality, his real name) Saito Tomohiro. The reason being was that he wanted to see if he was proficient enough to be a professional novelist; he wanted people to read the book without a bias in knowing the author’s background. In short, he didn’t want the audience to read the book because it was written by Mizushima Hiro, but because they genuinely found the plot and characters interesting.
Unfortunately, things didn’t quite work out as he hoped. Suspicions arose about the integrity of his “Poplar” win, since Mizushima left his agency back in September for his new career, and his “Poplar” award success was declared a month later.
Mizushima confessed, “Even I believe everything is going too well for me. But I started working on this novel around 2 years ago, and applied for the award in May. I should be happy about the award, but I can’t even eat right.”
He also discussed the reason why he has chosen “Life” as the theme of the novel. ”About 3 years ago, I learned that there were over 30,000 people who commit suicide every year. So I couldn’t leave it alone since I too have thought about killing myself before,” he revealed.
Mizushima confessed that he was discriminated against when he lived in Switzerland for 6 years; he was picked on by kids, and even by some adults. “Therefore, I was very self-conscious kid, and hated my face and voice. Even now, I’m not very comfortable with having my pictures taken.”
Even after he came back to Japan, he was lonely because he could not share his thoughts with others since he wasn’t able to speak Japanese very well. Instead, he dove into the refuge of reading books (with the help of a dictionary); his desire to master the Japanese language and to share his experiences is why he started to write after he entered college.
Mizushima concluded with, “I’m prepared to face the conflicts about the book, but I will be happy as long as it can make people think about ‘Life’.”
Source:
TokyoHive
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