Game Creator Hideo Kojima, Manga Creator Fumi Yoshinaga Win Agency for Cultural Affairs’ Media Arts Awards

The Japanese government’s Agency for Cultural Affairs announced the winners of the 72nd “Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Fine Arts Recommendation Awards” on Wednesday. Game designer Hideo Kojima won the Cabinet Minister Award in the media fine arts category, while Ōoku: The Inner Chambers manga creator Fumi Yoshinaga won the Newcomer Award in the same category. Oscar-nominated film director Ryūsuke Hamaguchi (Drive My Car) also won the Newcomer Award in the film category.

The awards ceremony will be in Tokyo on March 15. The Cabinet Minister Award winners in 11 categories will each receive a certificate and 300,000 yen (about US$2,600), and the Newcomer Award winners will each receive a certificate and 200,000 yen (about US$1,700).

Kojima designed and wrote the Metal Gear game for Konami in 1987. The game helped establish the stealth game genre and launched the Metal Gear series. Kojima left Konami in December 2015, and his Kojima Productions studio became independent with his departure.

Kojima Productions released its Death Stranding game for the PlayStation 4 in November 2019, and released the game on PC in July 2020. The game won the Outstanding Achievement in Audio Design and Outstanding Technical Achievement awards at the 23rd annual D.I.C.E. Awards in February 2019. Death Stranding: Director’s Cut, the the PlayStation 5 version of the game, launched on September 24.

Yoshinaga serialized Ōoku: The Inner Chambers in Hakusensha‘s Melody magazine from 2004 until December 2020. Viz Media will publish the final volume in English on March 15, and it describes the story:

In Edo period Japan, a strange new disease called the Red Pox has begun to prey on the country’s men. Within eighty years of the first outbreak, the male population has fallen by seventy-five percent. Women have taken on all the roles traditionally granted to men, even that of the Shogun. The men, precious providers of life, are carefully protected. And the most beautiful of the men are sent to serve in the Shogun’s Inner Chamber…

The manga won the 2009 James Tiptree, Jr. Award, and won the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize in 2009. Its other honors include the 1st anan Manga Prize, the 56th Shogakukan Manga Prize in the shōjo division, the 5th Sense of Gender Prize’s Special Award, and the Grand Prize in the 42nd Nihon SF Taishō Awards. The manga inspired a live-action film adaptation in 2010, a live-action television series titled Ōoku: Arikoto・Iemitsu Hen in October 2012, and a second live-action film titled Ōoku: Eien – Emonnosuke・Tsunayoshi Hen in December of the same year.

Yoshinaga’s other manga include Antique Bakery (published by Digital Manga Publishing) and What Did You Eat Yesterday? — both of which inspired television series and films.

Sources: Comic Natalie, Kojima Productions’ Twitter account via Otakomu