山田 風太郎（yamada futaro）- 小説家

山田 風太郎（やまだ ふうたろう、1922年–2001年）は、推理小説、忍法を題材とする伝奇小説、明治期の歴史小説を手がけた小説家。本名は山田 誠也。兵庫県の医家に生まれ、幼くして両親を失った。上京後、東京医学専門学校（現・東京医科大学）で学び、在学中に探偵小説誌「宝石」の懸賞募集に入選して、1947年に作家としてデビューした。江戸川 乱歩に認められて推理小説を発表し、1949年には探偵作家クラブ賞の短編賞を受賞した。1958年に連載を始めた『甲賀忍法帖』では、徳川家の将軍継嗣を決めるために甲賀・伊賀の忍者各十人が争うという設定に、超人的な秘術と敵対する一族の男女の恋を組み合わせた。この作品から始まる「忍法帖」は、のちに映画や漫画、アニメにも翻案された。1970年代には明治の文明開化を舞台とする小説へ活動を広げた。『警視庁草紙』では、近代化を進める川路 利良の警視庁と、元奉行・同心・岡っ引ら旧幕府側の人々の対決を軸に、実在の人物や事件に架空の人物を交えた連作を構成した。一方で、戦時中から書き続けた日記や随筆も刊行し、小説とは異なる形で戦中・戦後の生活を記録した。『人間臨終図巻』では、英雄や政治家、作家、芸術家など923人の最期を、亡くなった年齢の若い順に配列した。1997年に菊池寛賞を受賞し、第4回日本ミステリー文学大賞の贈呈式は2001年に行われた。

Futaro Yamada (1922–2001), born Seiya Yamada, was a novelist whose work ranged from detective fiction and fantastical ninja tales to historical fiction set in the Meiji era. Born into a medical family in Hyogo Prefecture, he lost both parents during childhood. After moving to Tokyo, he studied at Tokyo Medical College, now Tokyo Medical University. While still a student, he won a competition run by the detective-fiction magazine Hoseki and made his professional debut in 1947. Encouraged by Edogawa Ranpo, he published mysteries and received the short-fiction prize of the Japanese Detective Writers Club in 1949. “Koga Ninpocho,” serialized from 1958 and published in English as “The Kouga Ninja Scrolls,” placed ten Koga and ten Iga ninja in a lethal contest to determine the Tokugawa succession. Their extraordinary techniques and the love between heirs of the opposing clans became the foundation of his Ninpocho fiction, subsequently adapted for film, manga, and animation. During the 1970s, Yamada turned increasingly to the social upheaval of the early Meiji period. In “Keishicho Soshi,” he set the modernizing police force led by Kawaji Toshiyoshi against former magistrates, constables, and informers of the shogunate. The linked stories combined historical figures and events with invented characters. Alongside these novels, he published essays and diaries kept from the war years onward, recording everyday life during and after the conflict. In “Ningen Rinju Zukan,” he assembled accounts of the last moments of 923 people, including rulers, politicians, writers, and artists, arranging them by their age at death. He received the Kikuchi Kan Prize in 1997; the presentation ceremony for the fourth Japan Mystery Literature Award, which honored his contribution to the genre, took place in 2001.