Noted Japanese playwrite Akira Hayasaka dies at 88

December 17, 2017

Tokyo- Noted Japanese playwrite and author Akira Hayasaka died due to the rupture of an abdominal aortic aneurysm at a hospital in Tokyo on Saturday. He was 88.

After graduating from Nihon University College of Art, Hayasaka, a native of Matsuyama, the capital of Ehime Prefecture, western Japan, started working for a newspaper publisher and then as a playwrite.

Hayasaka's major works included "Yumechiyo Nikki," a Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK) television drama series. Yumechiyo Nikki, starring popular actress Sayuri Yoshinaga playing as Yumechiyo, was a trilogy, with the first series broadcast in 1981, the second series in 1982 and the third series in 1984.

In the drama, Yumechiyo, who runs an "okiya" lodging house for "geisha" female entertainers, is depicted as being exposed to radiation while in the womb from the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima, western Japan, on Aug. 6, 1945, and given three years to live due to leukemia.

Hayasaka also produced "Tenka Gomen," an NHK historical drama broadcast between 1971 and 1972.

In addition, he wrote screenplays for works including "Seishun no Mon," a novel by author Hiroyuki Itsuki. Jiji Press