Beyond the Blossoming Fields

Born in Hokkaido, Jun"ichi Watanabe became interested in literature in high school. After graduating at Sapporo Medical University, he worked as an orthopaedic surgeon, but in 1969 he resigned his post and moved to Tokyo to pursue a full-time career as a writer. The recipient of prestigious literary awards such as the Naoki Prize and the Yoshikawa Eiji Prize, Watanabe has written numerous scientific texts as well as biographical books and works of fiction, many of which have been made into films.