Mikirō Sasaki

Mikirō Sasaki (佐々木 幹郎, Sasaki Mikirō^?, October 20, 1947) is a Japanese poet and travel author, winner of the 2003 Yomiuri Prize for travel essays. Sasaki won the award for his book Ajia kaidō kikō: umi wa toshi de aru (A Travel Journal of the Asian Seaboard, 2002). He has published more than a score of poetry collections and travel books. His Demented flute: selected poems, 1967-1986 was published in English in 1988. In 2012, his poetry collection Ashita(Tomorrow) won the 2012 Sakutarō Hagiwara Prize, one of the most prestigious prizes in the world of Japanese poetry. Now, Sasaki lives in Tokyo.

Sasaki was born in Nara Prefecture, grew up in Fujiidera City in Osaka, Japan, attending Fujiidera Elementary School, Osaka Municipal Hannan Junior High School, and Ootemae Municipal Senior High School. He was enrolled at Doshisha University in Kyoto, majoring in philosophy. While there he wrote for the college poetry magazine Moby Dick, and his first collection of poems, Shisya no Muchi: (Whiplash of the Dead, 死者の鞭, was published in 1970 while he was still in college.

In 1976, Sasaki wrote a script for independent film production, Cinema Nesance, about the friendship of the poet Chūya Nakahara and the critic Hideo Kobayashi. It was called Honey Sleep and was directed by Hisaya Iwasa. Since then he has written a number of screenplays, including a 1990 script for NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) television which won a special award at the Golden Prague International Television Festival (Mezinárodni Televizni Festival Zlatá Praha).

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