Fumio Niwa

Fumio Niwa (丹羽 文雄, Niwa Fumio^?, born on November 22, 1904 in Mie Prefecture, Japan, died April 20, 2005 in Musashino, Tokyo) was a Japanese novelist with a long list of works, the most famous in the West being his novel The Buddha Tree (Japanese Bodaiju, 1956).

The eldest son of a priest in the Pure Land sect of Buddhism, Niwa grew up at Sogenji, a temple in Yokkaichi near Nagoya. After his graduation from Waseda University, he reluctantly entered the hereditary priesthood at Sogenji but quit two years later, at the age of 29, in order to become a writer, walking out of the temple grounds on 10 April 1932 and heading back to Tokyo. He was supported by his girlfriend until his marriage in 1935. During this time he published Sweetfish (Japanese Ayu), serialised in Bungei Shinju, and the novel Superfluous Flesh (Japanese Zeiniku).

Niwa's work was controversial and during World War II a couple of his novels were banned for immorality; he worked as a war correspondent in China and New Guinea; he accompanied Rear Admiral Gunichi Mikawa's Eighth Fleet and was on board the flagship Chōkai during the Battle of Savo Island on 9 August 1942. He was wounded at Tulagi. These experiences inspired Naval Engagement (Japanese Kaisen) and Lost Company (Kaeranu Chutai), both censored.

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