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Kazuo Ishiguro

いしぐろ かずお

Ishiguro Kazuo

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1954-11-08 （Nagasaki, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan）
Nationality
Japan (until 1983), United Kingdom (since 1983)
Languages
English
Residence History
Nagasaki (birth) → Guildford, Surrey → Golders Green, London

Career

Occupations
Novelist, Short story writer, Screenwriter, Lyricist, Columnist
Active Years
1981-
Memberships
Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature
Influenced By
Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, Yasujirō Ozu, Mikio Naruse, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Marcel Proust
Influenced
Contemporary English-language novelists (broad influence)

Education

University of Kent
English and Philosophy
Degree: BA (Hons)
Period: 1974–1978
Year of Graduation: 1978
Country: United Kingdom
BA (English and Philosophy)
University of East Anglia
Creative Writing Course
Degree: MA
Period: 1979–1980
Year of Graduation: 1980
Country: United Kingdom
Studied with Malcolm Bradbury and Angela Carter

Awards

Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize
1982
Work: A Pale View of Hills
Result: 受賞
Whitbread Prize (Costa Book Awards)
1986
Work: An Artist of the Floating World
Result: 受賞
Booker Prize
1989
Work: The Remains of the Day
Organization: The Booker Prize committee
Result: 受賞
Nobel Prize in Literature
2017
Organization: Swedish Academy
Result: 受賞
Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE)
1995
Result: 叙勲
Knight Bachelor
2018
Result: 叙勲
Order of the Rising Sun, 2nd Class, Gold and Silver Star
2018
Organization: Government of Japan
Result: 叙勲
Bodley Medal
2019
Organization: Bodleian Libraries
Result: 受賞
American Academy of Achievement Golden Plate Award
2017
Organization: American Academy of Achievement
Result: 受賞
Booker Prize nominations (multiple)
Organization: The Booker Prize committee
Result: ノミネート（複数回）

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

A Pale View of Hills

1982 Literary fiction

Ishiguro's debut novel set against a Japan-evoking backdrop; explores memory, loss, guilt and redemption.

memorylossidentity
Adaptations
  • [Film] A Pale View of Hills (2025)

An Artist of the Floating World

1986 Historical fiction / Literary

A reflective novel about an aging former artist confronting his past actions and responsibility in a postwar Japan-like setting.

responsibilityrecollectionintergenerational conflict

The Remains of the Day

1989 Historical fiction / Literary

Told from the perspective of an English butler confronting loyalty, self-deception and past choices; Booker Prize winner (1989) and adapted into a 1993 film.

duty vs. selfforgetting and memoryregret
Adaptations
  • [Film] The Remains of the Day / James Ivory (1993)
  • [Musical] The Remains of the Day (musical) (2010)

Never Let Me Go

2005 Literary fiction with science fiction elements

Set in a world close to our own, it follows the lives of students raised for a troubling purpose and interrogates what it means to be human; named Time's best novel of 2005.

humanityethicsfriendship and loss
Adaptations
  • [Film] Never Let Me Go / Mark Romanek (2010)
  • [TV miniseries] Never Let Me Go (TV miniseries) (2016)

The Buried Giant

2015 Fantastical historical novel

A fable-like novel set in an England-evoking past that explores memory and reconciliation.

forgettingreconciliationhistorical wounds

Klara and the Sun

2021 Science-fiction parable / Literary

Narrated by an 'Artificial Friend' named Klara, the novel interrogates technological progress, the future and what it means to be human.

artificial intelligencehumanityethics
Adaptations
  • [Film (upcoming)] Klara and the Sun

Bibliography

  • A Pale View of Hills (1982)
  • An Artist of the Floating World (1986)
  • The Remains of the Day (1989)
  • The Unconsoled (1995)
  • When We Were Orphans (2000)
  • Never Let Me Go (2005)
  • Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall (2009)
  • The Buried Giant (2015)
  • Klara and the Sun (2021)

Adaptations

  • The Remains of the Day (1993 film)
  • Never Let Me Go (2010 film)
  • Living (2022 film, screenplay by Kazuo Ishiguro)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
restrained, understated proseintrospective first-person narrationlyrical concision and use of ellipses/implicit meaning
Recurring Motifs
memory and forgettingduty versus personal lifepostwar aftermath and reconciliation

Legacy

Kazuo Ishiguro is one of the leading contemporary novelists writing in English, internationally acclaimed for delicate explorations of memory, identity and moral responsibility. His Nobel and Booker prizes and other honours have made him a major influence on late 20th and early 21st century English-language literature.

Museums

  • Harry Ransom Center (archive holdings) The University of Texas at Austin

Academic Societies

  • Royal Society of Literature (Fellow)

Archives

  • Harry Ransom Center (The University of Texas at Austin)

In Popular Culture

  • Widespread popular recognition through film and stage adaptations (The Remains of the Day, Never Let Me Go, etc.)

Quotes

  • “a writer who, in novels of great emotional force, has uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world.”
    Source: Swedish Academy (Nobel Prize citation, 2017) (2017)
  • “It's a magnificent honour, mainly because it means that I'm in the footsteps of the greatest authors that have lived.”
    Source: Kazuo Ishiguro (comment upon receiving Nobel Prize) (2017)

Trivia

  • Originally aspired to be a songwriter/musician.
  • Has written many lyrics for singer Stacey Kent.
  • The Remains of the Day was adapted into a 1993 film starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson.
  • Nominated for Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Living (2023 nomination).
  • Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2017 and knighted in 2018.