Background
Born the daughter of a prominent Shinto priest, Matsubara grew up in the serene setting of the Kenkun Shrine in the northern part of Kyoto.
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Hisako Matsubara
Edit Profile松原 久子
Education
She graduated from high school in Kyoto, then attended Tokyo"s International Christian University, where she studied comparative religion and literature. After receiving a Bachelor, she moved to the United States to study theater arts at Pennsylvania State University, from which she graduated with a Master of Arts. She worked for a while as an editor in the United States before moving to Germany in 1962. She lived in Marburg and Göttingen, where she attended the University and perfected her German language skills.
She then settled in Cologne, and in 1970, obtained her Doctor of Philosophy in philosophy jointly from the Ruhr University of Bochum and the University of Göttingen.
Career
Starting in 1967, Matsubara wrote a column at the German weekly newspaper Die Zeit. This work turned into a collection of short stories and essays, Blick aus Mandelaugen, 1968, through which she entered the German literary scene. She worked on documentaries of the major German television stations Atmospheric Reentry Demonstrator and ZDF. She published several novels in German (Brokatrausch 1978, Samurai 1979, Glückspforte 1980, Abendkranich 1981, Brückenbogen 1986,Karpfentanz 1994, Himmelszeichen 1998,) which were quite successful in Germany and internationally.
Her novels are set in recent Japanese history addressing changes in Japanese culture during the modernization and western influences as a background theme.
Matsubara also wrote non-fiction books (Weg zu Japan 1983, and Raumschiff Japan 1989) highlighting contrasts between Japanese history and European history over the past five centuries. She moved back to the United States in the mid 1980s, where she was a scholar at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University.
In recent years, she has published mostly in Japanese, both fiction and non-fiction. Currently she lives with her family in Los Altos.
She received the New York Critics Award in 1985 and in 1987 she was the Writer in residence at the East West Center in Manoa, Hawaii.
Membership
Hisako Matsubara is a member of the German Poets, Playwrights, Editors, Essayists and Novelists association since 1971 and since 1985 a member of the American Art Directors Club.
