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Shino Sakuragi was born in the eastern Hokkaido city of Kushiro, in 9 April 1965 (age 52). She decided to become a writer at the age of 14, when she read the novel Banka, but it wasn’t until after she was married and had a family that she seriously turned to writing Japanese fiction and poetry.

Literature

Shino Sakuragi was keen on writing collections of short stories. In the first half of 2012, the book 'Terminals' was the talk of Japanese literary world. The title of the short stories collection is a meditation on the sorrows of life, interweaving the past and present of a man on the verge of old age. For the past 30 years, former judge Kanji Washida has maintained a private law practice in Kushiro, Hokkaido. When he takes on the defense of a woman charged with the use of illegal stimulants, he is reminded of his one-time lover, Saeko, who was later charged with the same crime. They had become friends when they were both active in the student movement during college, and eventually moved in together. When Washida's parents cut off their financial support, Saeko drops out of school and works as a bargirl to fill the gap while he studies for the national bar exam; but once he has passed the exam, she disappears. The next time they meet is in an Asahikawa, Hokkaido courtroom, where he is the judge and she appears before him on allegations of stimulant possession. They subsequently renew their acquaintance, but when he is transferred to Tokyo and she comes to the station to see him off, she leaps into the path of an oncoming train and kills herself as he watches. This prompts him to resign as a judge as well as to divorce his wife, and in the 30 years since then, he has limited himself solely to cases where he is a court-appointed public defender.</ref>

The collection of seven stories in the 'Hotel Royal,' delves into the complex textures of the human psyche, leaving us with vivid images of characters who, far from being comfortable or contented with their lives, struggle to overcome loneliness and poverty or to find sexual fulfilment. A hilltop "love hotel" overlooking a scenic marsh outside an eastern Hokkaido city. Beginning with a story set in the present, when the hotel has been abandoned, the volume moves in reverse chronological order to the time some 30 years earlier when the property was first built. Miyuki, the point of view character began dating Takashi, who had been eager to try his hand at the theme of nudes in an abandoned building, he tells Miyuki, and asks her to be his model. She is reluctant, but ultimately gives in, even acceding to his demand that she go on a crash diet to lose some pounds before the shoot. She imagines he is planning something artistic, but once on site, she discovers to her disappointment and distaste that he intends to send the photos to a amateur porn magazine. The penultimate story takes place when the hotel was still thriving, ten years or more before its closure, and centers on Miko Yamada, 60, who works there as a maid. Having grown up in a hardscrabble farm family, Miko went to work right out of middle school, taking a variety of low-wage jobs. She got married at 35 and had three grown children, two sons and a daughter, all of whom left home immediately after finishing middle school; only the younger son, who became apprenticed to a plasterer, has remained in touch. Miko receives a letter from this son saying he has a new employer and his pay has gone up, enclosing 30,000 yen for her to use as she pleases. Shortly after this, his name is across the news that he is arrested for a gangland murder. </ref>

Mist, set in eastern Hokkaidō city of Nemuro, whose possession continues to be under dispute ever since they were occupied by the Soviet Union at the end of World War II can be seen across the waters. The action spans a period from 1960 to about six years later. It has a compelling sense of realism as the story portrays a woman who continues to live for love even as her life is buffeted by a sister transformed into a major figure of power. </ref>

Awards

Her short story Yukimushi (Snow bugs) received the 2002 All Yomimono Prize for New Writers, which brought her major attention. Additionally, she received the Shimase Award for Love Stories and was nominated for the Naoki Prize for her 2011 novel Raburesu (Loveless). In 2013 she won the 149th Naoki Prize for her collection of seven short stories titled “Hotel Royal,” describing various people associated with a love hotel in Kushiro, Hokkaido.</ref>