1949 – Haruki Murakami was born in Kyoto, Japan. His parents are both junior high japanese teachers. His father was the son of a Buddhist priest. His mother was the daughter of a merchant of Osaka.
1951 – The family moved to Shukugawa, Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture. Murakami raised in Nishinomiya, Ashiya and Kobe in Hyogo Prefecture (Ashiya is the exclusive residential district of Kansai area next to Kobe, and Kobe is the second largest port town of Japan).
Opposition to his parents’ occupations, Murakami devoted himself to and has been deeply influenced by Western and American literature and culture. He spent his teen years reading ‘World Literature Collection’ and ‘World Literature’.
1968 – Murakami spent a year preparing for the entrance examination, he entered Waseda University (the second best private university in Japan) in Tokyo, where he met his wife, and studied drama and cinema.
1971 – Married with Yoko Takahashi.
1974 – Opened a jazz café (the Japanese unique style of café, coffee shops play Jazz records all day long.) ‘the Peter Cat’ at Kokubunji, suburban Tokyo.
1975 – Graduated Waseda University. His graduate thesis is The Chronicle of Journeys on American Cinema in which he mentioned New Hollywood and Easy Rider.
1977 – Moved the café to Sendagaya, Shibuya, Tokyo.
1978 – Murakami was inspired to write novel while watching a baseball game at the Meiji Jungu Stadium (home stadium of the Sankei Atoms).
1979 – His first novel Hear the Wind Sing recieved the Gunzo Newcomer Literary Prize, then published. And it nominated the Akutagawa Prize, but defeated.
1980 – Pinball, 1973 Again, it nominated the Akutagawa Prize but consequently defeated. Nevertheless some committees (Junnosuke Yoshiyuki, Kenzaburo Oe and Saiichi Maruya) praised.
1981 – Sold the café to a friend and started to write for a living. Moved to Funabashi, Chiba.
1982 – Murakami’s first full-length novel, A Wild Sheep Chase was published and received the Noma Literary Newcomer’s Prize. This novel is full-scale (post-)modern urban adventure, and he began to construct his grand narrative.
1984 – Moved to Fujisawa, Kanagawa.
1985 – Moved to Sendagaya, Shibuya. Murakami’s master-piece Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World received the Tanizaki Prize.
1986 – In February, moved to Ohiso, Kanagawa. From October, stayed Roma and Athens for a time. (Far Drums)
1987 – Norwegian Wood , Murakami’s first love story but out of ordinary love story.
1988 – Dance, Dance, Dance , concluding work of Murakami’s career till that time.
1989 – The first English translation publish internationally of Murakami’s works, A Wild Sheep Chase translated by Alfred Birnbaum, Kodansha International. Then, in 90’s, in the short term, Murakami got a international recognition and reputation.
1991 – January, Went to the US as a associate researcher of Princeton University.
1992 – In January, nominated an associate professor at Princeton University (till August 1993). South of the Border, West of the Sun
1993 – In July, transferred and taught at William Howard Taft University (till May 1995).
1994 – The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle volume 1 and 2
1995 – Returned to Japan. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle volume 3 For The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle , Murakami received the Yomiuri Literary Award (Best Novel).
1997 – The first nonfiction by Murakami, Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche received the Takeo Kuwabara Prize (1999).
1998 – Underground 2: the Place that Was Promised
1999 – Sputnik Sweetheart
2000 – Moved to Ohiso, Kanagawa.
2002 – Kafka on the Shore prized the World Fantasy Award.
2004 – After Dark
2006 – Murakami received the Franz Kafka Prize. For Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman, he received the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award.
2009 – In January, Murakami received the Jerusalem Prize, he made the “wall and egg” speech. 1Q84 received the Mainichi Publishing Culture Prize.
2010 – Film Norwegian Wood , directed by French-Vietnamese director Tran Anh Hung.
2011 – Murakami awarded the International Catalunya Prize. By the speech, he criticized the nuclear policy of Japan and mentioned about the impermanence of Japanese.
2013 – Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage
2014 – He awarded the Welt-Literaturpreis.
2016 – He awarded the Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award.
2017 – Killing Commendatore
Related Posts and Pages
Note (EN) | Novelist as a Vocation
Book Review | Abandoning a Cat, When I Talk About My Father
Note | Abandoning a Cat, When I Talk About My Father
Note (EN) | Hear the Wind Sing