Recalling lunch with Ishihara and a tall tale

(First published on February 1, 2022)

TOKYO — I read with sadness the passing of the great novelist and politician, Shintaro Ishihara, on February 1, 2022, at the age of 89.

As a writer, I had long been interested in Ishihara’s career. I had read the book “Taiyo No Kisetsu, which won Ishihara the Akutagawa award at age 24, and launched his remarkable career. It was a brilliant depiction of amoral youth in the postwar era, set in Kamakura. I also saw the film version which helped make Ishihara’s brother a movie star who would be known as the James Dean of Japan. He and his brother (Yujiro) became the center of a youth cult.

He was a magnet for trouble because of his outspoken ways. In 1962, he drew flak for commentary at the end of the 1962 September sumo tournament after Kashiwado had upset the great White Russian Taiho in the final match. In a newspaper op-ed published the next morning in the Nikkan Sports, Ishihara deemed it a fake. A yao-cho.