Misa Yamamura, née Kimura, was a Japanese novelist and a mystery writer favored as the queen of both mystery novels and tricks in Japan, often compared to Agatha Christie. Her spouse is Takashi Yamamura, a painter and a retired high school teacher. Her younger brother is Hiroshi Kimura, a professor of Political Science and her daughter is Momiji Yamamura, an actress.
Biography
Born in Kyoto, Misa Yamamura graduated from Kyoto Prefectural University Faculty of Letters, majored Japanese Literature in 1957 and was employed as a Japanese literature teacher at Fushimi Junior High School in Kyoto City until 1964 when she got married. Beginning writing since around 1967, Yamamura was nominated three times for in 1970, 1972 and 1973, and it was in 1974 when she made a major debut with "Disappeared into the Sea of Melaka" マラッカの海に消えた. Yamamura wrote two TV screen plays before her major debut for a very popular series of detective drama "SWAT: Special Investigation Team". Those were written for Episodes 474 and 476, both broadcast in 1970. Among her over 70 novels, many were set in Kyoto, and a good number of those were used as the original works for television dramas since 1970s as well as for several theater plays. She incorporated her background into her novels as she held official instructors' license for Ikenobo flower arrangement and tea ceremony with a Japanese dance Natori, or an instructor allowed to hold a stage name. She appeared in a few TV drama based on her novels casted with Momiji Yamamura. Misa Yamamura introduced herself to a mystery writer Kyotaro Nishimura before her debut, and their friendship lasted till her unexpected death in 1996. Momiji, her daughter, has also been appearing in a variety of dramas based on novels by Kyotaro Nishimura as well. Many years after she had expired, Nishimura published a biographical novel "A Woman Writer" 女流作家 with a portrait picture of Misa Yamamura. "A Flowery Coffin" 華の棺 was originally written in four parts between October 27 and November 17 for a weekly magazine Shūkan Asahi in 2006, and a hard cover with the same title was published in November, 2006. In both titles, the heroine is Natsuko Emoto, a woman mystery writer. Nishimura dedicated those books to Misa Yamamura as he wrote on the band over the book jacket. On September 5, 1996, she was found dead in the room she had used as her office in Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, due to heart failure at the age of 62 years. Yamamura left a will that her eldest daughter Momiji Yamamura should be given a role whoever a director produces works based on her novels for drama for television or theater. Momiji Yamamura has been providing the original plans for TV drama and theatrical works that uses her mother's novels, and it includes those episodes of two-hour TV dramas titled "Misa Yamamura, the Novelist Detective" has been broadcast since 2012, with the leading role portrayed as Misa Yamamura the novelist detective. Momiji is co-starred with the main castYūko Asano, who plays Misa Yamamura.
Awards
1983 Disappeared Heir 消えた相続人 at the third Nihon Bungei Taishō
1992 the 10th Kyoto Culture Award, Lifetime Achievement Honor and the Kyoto Akebono Award, both as a writer
Long lists
1970 Death at Keijo 京城の死 at the 16th Edogawa Ranpo Award
