Isozaki wins Akutagawa award, Naoki prize goes to Kitamura+

TOKYO, July 15 Kyodo - Kenichiro Isozaki won the 141st Akutagawa Prize for up-and-coming authors for his work ''Tsui-no Sumika'' (The Last Home), the selection committee of the literary award said Wednesday.

The 141st Naoki Prize for seasoned writers of entertainment fiction went to
Kaoru Kitamura, 59, for ''Sagi to Yuki'' (Heron and Snow).
Iranian writer Shirin Nezammafi, 29, one of six candidates for the Akutagawa
award for her story written in Japanese, missed out on the award.
A native of Chiba, Isozaki, 44, is a company employee who wrote about the
everyday life of a married couple from the husband's view point in his
prize-winning novel.
Eimi Yamada, a well-known writer and member of the selection committee for the
Akutagawa Prize, praised Isozaki's work as ''the most intellectually built
story among the candidate novels.''
Kitamura, a Saitama native and veteran writer known for his bestselling mystery
novels, won the Naoki Prize at his sixth nomination.
Kitamura's prize-winning novel is the final part of a trilogy in which a woman
from the well-born family and a female chauffer solve a mystery set in the
prewar era in Japan.
Jiro Asada, another well-known novelist and one of the selection committee
members for the Naoki Prize, said of Kitamura's work, ''His writing was just
beautiful and it is as simple as that. He effectively stimulated readers'
imaginations because no unnecessary words existed in his writing.''
The winners will be awarded prize money of 1 million yen each at an award
ceremony on Aug. 21 at Tokyo Kaikan in Marunouchi.
Named after renowned novelist Ryunosuke Akutagawa, the semiannual Akutagawa
Prize was established in 1935 as one of Japan's most prestigious literary
awards, along with the Naoki Prize, which was named after writer Sanjugo Naoki.
==Kyodo