Eiko Kadono | |
|---|---|
| Native name | 角野 栄子 |
| Born | January 1, 1935 Tokyo, Japan |
| Occupation | Author |
| Notable works | Kiki's Delivery Service |
Eiko Kadono (角野 栄子, Kadono Eiko), real name Eiko Watanabe (渡辺英子, Watanabe Eiko), born January 1, 1935, is a Japanese author of children's literature, picture books, non-fiction, and essays in Shōwa and Heisei period in Japan. Her most famous work Kiki's Delivery Service, released in 1985, was made into an anime film by Hayao Miyazaki, and spawned a series of sequel novels. In 2018, she won the Hans Christian Andersen Award. Currently, she serves as a guest professor at the Nihon Fukushi University in Aichi Prefecture.
Kadono was born in Tokyo, Japan. As a child during the World War II, she was evacuated to North Japan.[1] She attended and graduated with a degree in English literature from Waseda University. After graduation in 1960 at the age of 25, she emigrated to Brazil where she spent two years. She wrote a non-fiction story called Brazil and My Friend Luizinho (Ruijinnyo shōnen, Burajiru o tazunete), based on her experience at that time, about a Brazilian boy who loves dancing samba. Brazil was released in 1970.[2] Kadono stated that living through World War II sparked her rebellious nature and had a profound impact on the way she viewed the world.[3]
She has published almost two hundred works, mainly books for children, including picture books and prose works for older children, as well as essay collections.[1] Her first successful children's book, published Ôdorabô Bula Bula shi (The Robber Bla-Bla), was published in 1981.[4] In 1985, she published the children's novel Majo no Takkyūbin (魔女の宅急便, Kiki's Delivery Service), about a young witch-in-training who starts a delivery service in a seaside town of Koriko. The book received several awards, including the Noma Prize for Children's Literature, the Shogakukan Children's Publication Culture Award, and the IBBY Honor List.[2] It was adapted into a film by Hayao Miyazaki in 1989 and became one of his most popular films.[1][5] The book was also adapted into a live-action film in 2014, directed by Takashi Shimizu.[6] She has written eight sequels to Kiki's.[7][8]
Kadono won the 2018 Hans Christian Andersen Award for Writing.[10][1] The judges described her work as having "an ineffable charm, compassion, and élan" and praised her inspirational female characters as "singularly self-determining and enterprising."[10][11]
