During the 1980s, Tsuji started seriously writing novels as a “Blank Generation” writer. In 1989, his first novel, Pianissimo, won the 13th Subaru Prize for Literature. In 1997, he was awarded the 116th Akutagawa Prize for Kaikyo no Hikari (The Light from the Straits).
In 1999, he was awarded the Prix Femina in the foreign novel category for the French translation of Le Bouddha blanc (The White Buddha). The old profile states that he was the first Japanese writer to receive that award.
His novels were translated and published in countries including France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Turkey, China, Taiwan, South Korea and Thailand. The English-translated short story Tomorrow’s Promises was introduced in The Literary Review as a PEN Translation Award-winning story. The profile also noted selection by the French literary magazine LIRE among fifty prospective novelists, and the serialization of a novel in a South Korean newspaper. It closed: “Tsuji currently lives in Paris and continues writing his novels.” That closing sentence reflects the profile’s 2021 wording, not a present-day location statement.
Start with a public catalogue
The most reliable starting point is the National Diet Library's author search in NDL Search. A catalogue record can establish a title, responsibility statement, publication date, edition, physical format and other bibliographic details. It does not, by itself, establish critical reputation, readership, sales or an award. Those different kinds of claims require different sources.
Names, scripts and search results
Researchers arriving from English-language references may encounter Japanese characters and more than one romanized form. Search interfaces also handle spaces, name order and scripts differently. Begin with the Japanese author string shown in the catalogue result, then compare responsibility statements rather than assuming that every similar romanization identifies the same person or the same role. The old site's own use of Hitonari and Jinsei helps explain its section labels, but it should not be treated as a complete authority record.
Distinguish works from editions
A single literary work can generate several catalogue entries: a first edition, a paperback edition, a revised edition, an electronic version, a translation or an item in a collected volume. Search-result totals therefore are not the same as a count of distinct works. A careful bibliography groups records by title and responsibility, then records each edition separately. Publication date and notes often reveal whether two entries represent the same text in a different format or genuinely different material.
- Record the title exactly as the catalogue presents it.
- Keep publication date, edition and format attached to that record.
- Separate a translation from the Japanese-language edition.
- Do not infer prizes, endorsements or reception from catalogue metadata.
Research across media without assuming connections
The former website placed literature beside music, film, news and diary sections. That structure is useful evidence about how the site organized its material, but it does not prove that similarly titled works are adaptations or that projects share participants. Follow each medium's own documentation. The Japanese literature guide explains catalogue reading in the site's primary language; VOCALIST covers music sources, and FILM introduces the film database used here.
A note on citation
Bibliographic metadata can point to the correct edition, but quotations must be checked against the actual volume used. A citation should identify the edition and page rather than relying on a search snippet. Material attributed to the former website also needs a traceable publication date and source context before it can be quoted. When that evidence is unavailable, this guide marks the gap instead of inventing a missing passage.