# Misa Yamamura

Misa Yamamura (山村 美紗, Yamamura Misa, August 25, 1934 – September 5, 1996), née Kimura (木村), was a Japanese novelist and a mystery writer favored as the queen of both mystery novels and tricks in Japan, often compared to Agatha Christie.

## Biography

Born in Kyoto, Misa Yamamura graduated from Kyoto Prefectural University Faculty of Letters, majored Japanese Literature in 1957 and was employed as a Japanese literature teacher at Fushimi Junior High School in Kyoto City until 1964 when she got married. Beginning writing since around 1967, Yamamura was nominated three times for Edogawa Ranpo Award [ja] in 1970, 1972 and 1973, and it was in 1974 when she made a major debut with "Disappeared into the Sea of Melaka" (マラッカの海に消えた, Marakkano Umini Kieta). Yamamura wrote two TV screen plays before her major debut for a very popular series of detective drama "SWAT: Special Investigation Team" (特別機動捜査隊). Those were written for Episodes 474 (co-authored with Norimasa Ogawa) and 476, both broadcast in 1970.
Among her seventy-plus novels, many were set in Kyoto, and a good number of those were used as the original works for television dramas since 1970s as well as for several theater plays. She incorporated her background into her novels as she held official instructors' license for Ikenobo flower arrangement (6th rank or Jun-kakan) and tea ceremony with a Japanese dance Natori, or an instructor allowed to hold a stage name (Hanayagi school). She appeared in a few TV drama based on her novels cast with Momiji Yamamura.
Her most enduring character was amateur detective Catherine Turner, the Japanophilic daughter of a fictional Vice President of the United States. Debuting as a Columbia senior in 1975's Coffin of Flowers (花の棺, Hana no Hitsugi), this character ultimately resettled in Japan as a fashion reporter/photographer, appearing in a total of twenty novels and dozens of short stories.
Misa Yamamura introduced herself to mystery writer Kyotaro Nishimura before her debut, and their friendship lasted till her unexpected death in 1996. Momiji, her daughter, has also been appearing in a variety of dramas based on novels by Kyotaro Nishimura as well. Many years after her death, Nishimura published the biographical novel A Woman Writer (女流作家, Joryū Sakka) with a portrait picture of Misa Yamamura. In 2006, he further homaged her with his own Coffin of Flowers (華の棺, Hana no Hitsugi); originally serialized in four parts from October 27 to November 17 for weekly magazine Shūkan Asahi, it centered on the legacy of deceased mystery writer Natsuko Emoto, a fictionalization of Yamamura.
On September 5, 1996, she was found dead in the room she had used as her office in Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, due to heart failure at the age of 62 years. Yamamura left a will that her eldest daughter Momiji Yamamura should be given a role whoever a director produces works based on her novels for drama for television or theater.
Momiji Yamamura has been providing the original plans for TV drama and theatrical works that uses her mother's novels, and it includes those episodes of two-hour TV dramas titled "Misa Yamamura, the Novelist Detective" has been broadcast since 2012, with the leading role portrayed as Misa Yamamura the novelist detective. Momiji is co-starred with the main cast Yūko Asano, who plays Misa Yamamura.

## Family

Her spouse is Takashi Yamamura, a painter and a retired high school teacher. Her younger brother is Hiroshi Kimura, a professor of Political Science and her daughter is Momiji Yamamura, an actress.

## Awards

* 1983: The Disappeared Heir (消えた相続人, Kieta sōzokunin) at the third Nihon Bungei Taishō
* 1992: the 10th Kyoto Culture Award, Lifetime Achievement Honor (第10回京都府文化賞功労賞受賞) and the Kyoto Akebono Award (京都あけぼの賞), both as a writer

## Long lists

* 1970: Death at Keijo (京城の死, Keijou no Shi) at the 16th Edogawa Ranpo Award
* 1971: The Corpse Likes Air Conditioner (死体はクーラーが好き)
* 1972: Death Crossover (死の立体交差, Shino rittaikousa) at the 18th Edogawa Ranpo Award
* 1973: Distorted Ocean Trench (ゆらぐ海溝, Yuragu kaiko) at the 19th Edogawa Ranpo Award