The Asahi reports that the winners of this year’s Yamada Fuutarou Prize have been awarded to Ubukata Tow’s 「光圀伝」(“The Tale of Mitsukuni”) and to Kubumi Sumi’s 「晴天の迷いクジラ」(“Lost Whale on a Fine Day”). They each will receive one million yen.

The Yamada Fuutarou Prize is still a relatively young award (this is only the third year the award has been given). Any novel published since last September is eligible, and the prize is sponsored by the Kadokawa Literary Promotion Group. Do Kadokawa published titles have the edge? Last year’s winner and Ubukata are Kadokawa books, but Kubumi Sumi’s is from Shinchosha.

Anyway, “The Tale of Mitsukuni” is a historical novel about Tokugawa Mitsukuni, who is most famous in real history for organizing the Dai Nihon Shi, a huge national history of Japan. I’m sure there are some embellishments in this 700+ page epic, because otherwise that sounds kind of boring. Ubukata Tow is most known in English for the sci-fi epic Mardock Scramble, which has also had manga and anime adaptations.

“Lost Whale on a Fine Day” is a “redemption story about three broken people reaching a turning point in their lives,” as I wrote last February when it came out. “Lost Whales on a Fine Day” was also number 5 on Da Vinci’s top 20 books of the first half of 2012.  Incidentally, it’s also available on Kindle, the first time I’ve seen the option at Amazon Japan. It’s a new era folks.