Culture News

Ryu Murakami dies at 74: the provocateur of 'Almost Transparent Blue', seen from 3 countries

Japanese novelist Ryu Murakami has died at 74. His publisher, Gentosha, announced the death on October 23; he died at home on October 17, according to India's Open magazine and South Korea's Kyunghyang Shinmun. The Japan Times said his works, which explored sex, violence and youth culture, were translated around the world.

Born in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture, in 1952, Murakami won the Akutagawa Prize for his 1976 debut, Almost Transparent Blue, about young people around the US base in Fussa, Tokyo. Later books included Coin Locker Babies, 69, In the Miso Soup and Audition, which Takashi Miike filmed in 1999. Open notes he was not related to Haruki Murakami, and that many of his books are still not in English.

“Ryu Murakami was not an author who made readers comfortable.” — Open

Kyunghyang reminded readers how big he was in South Korea: in 1998, 23 Korean cultural figures wrote a book about him, and he visited Seoul that January. It also recalled his second life on television, co-hosting the TV Tokyo business show Cambria Palace from 2006 until March this year.

How each outlet framed it

• The Japan Times — the news itself, and the global reach of his books.
• Kyunghyang Shinmun — his Korean fan base and his years as a TV host.
• Open — the cult writer of violence and alienation, and the films that carried him abroad.

What we don't know yet: No outlet reported a cause of death.