Kyōtarō Nishimura
6 September 1930 – 3 March 2022 was a Japanese novelist in the police procedural genre.
Also recorded as Kyotaro Nishimura · Nishimura Kyōtarō · Nishimura Kyotaro · Kyoutarou Nishimura
Kyōtarō Nishimura
User:Ellery · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Name
- Kyotaro Nishimura
- Birth Name
- Kihachiro Yajima
- Born
- 6 September 1930
- Birthplace
- Ebara, Tokyo, Japan
- Died
- 3 March 2022
- Place of death
- Yugawara, Kanagawa, Japan
- Occupation
- Novelist
- Full name
- 矢島 喜八郎.
- Nationality
- Japan and Empire of Japan.
- Fields
- detective fiction and detective literature.
- Education
- Tokyo Metropolitan Rokugo Kouka High School.
- Honours
- Edogawa Rampo Award, Mystery Writers of Japan Award and Kobunsha Mystery Literature Grand Prize.
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Kyōtarō Nishimura. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q1051441 · wikipedia · Kyotaro Nishimura
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
The documentary record
Statements marked “Documentary record” are set in the article beside the passage they confirm. Each is read from the authority records of the institutions named here; select “Prove” to see the record it was read from, where in that record, and when.
Institutions cited
Bibliothèque nationale de France · Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Complete reading chain (JSON)In this article
Biography
Biography
Kyōtarō Nishimura studied at Tokyo Metropolitan Rokugo Kouka High School. The recorded working language is Japanese. The field of work recorded is detective fiction and detective literature. Work by Kyōtarō Nishimura is recorded in the collections of Nishimura Kyotaro Museum. Distinctions recorded are Edogawa Rampo Award, Mystery Writers of Japan Award and Kobunsha Mystery Literature Grand Prize.
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Kyotaro Nishimura • Native Name — 西村 京太郎 • Pen Name — Kyotaro Nishimura • Birth Name — Kihachiro Yajima • Born — 6 September 1930 • Birthplace — Ebara, Tokyo, Japan • Died — 3 March 2022 • Place of death — Yugawara, Kanagawa, Japan • Occupation — Novelist • Illustration — Nishimura Kyotaro Museum (permanently closed in 2024)
Documentary record
Kyōtarō Nishimura (6 September 1930 – 3 March 2022) is described as a writer in the authority records of the Bibliothèque nationale de France and the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek. Kyōtarō Nishimura was born on 6 September 1930; the birthplace is recorded as Tokyo by the Bibliothèque nationale de France and as Tokio by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek. Kyōtarō Nishimura died on 3 March 2022 in Yugawara, Japan.
Career
Career
Nishimura is best known for his "train series" mysteries, most of which feature his characters, police detectives Shozo Totsugawa, Sadao Kamei and Tokitaka Honda. He won the Mystery Writers of Japan Award in 1981 for The Terminal Murder Case. Nishimura was married to Mizue Yajima. He died from liver cancer on 3 March 2022, at the age of 91.
Works in English translation
Works in English translation
• Novel • The Mystery Train Disappears (original title: Misuterī Ressha ga Kieta), trans. Gavin Frew (New York: Dembner Books, 1990) • Short story collection • The Isle of South Kamui and Other Stories (original title: Minami Kamuito), trans. Ginny Tapley Takemori (Thames River Press, 2013) • Short story • The Kindly Blackmailer (original title: Yasashii Kyōhakusha) ("Ellery Queen's Japanese Golden Dozen: The Detective Story World in Japan" anthology. Edited by Ellery Queen. Rutland Vermont: Charles E. Tuttle Co. Inc. 1978. pp. 147–165)
TV
TV
• Kyotaro Nishimura Travel Mystery • Kyotaro Nishimura Suspense -Susumu Samonji • Inspector Totsugawa Series
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Ebara-ku.
Birth place
Yugawara.
Death place
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- “Kyotaro Nishimura”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q1051441: Kyōtarō Nishimura
General reference · Wikidata
Awards
• 1965 – Edogawa Rampo Prize: Tenshi no Shōkon (A Scar of an Angel) • 1981 – Mystery Writers of Japan Award for Best Novel: Tāminaru Satsujin Jiken (The Terminal Murder Case)
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Kyotaro Nishimura, revision 1371897990 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Secondary witnessauthority record
General reference
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 18 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Books
39,529 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Kyoko HayashiAuthor
- Kyōko NakajimaAuthor
- KYOKUTEI BakinAuthor
- Kyoshi TakahamaAuthor
- Kyriakos CharalambidesAuthor
- Kyriakos D. KassisAuthor
- Kyril BonfiglioliAuthor
- Kyrylo StavrovetskyAuthor
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Kyōtarō Nishimura?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.