The daughter of the chief priest of Yoyogi Hachiman shrine, Hiraiwa Yumie was born in Tokyo in 1932. After graduating from the Department of Japanese Literature at Japan Women's University, the aspiring author studied under novelist Togawa Yukio and became a member of Shinyo-kai, an organization to promote literature established in memory of novelist Hasegawa Shin. In 1959, her work Taganeshi (A Sword Name-Engraver) won the Naoki Award. (Source: Wikipedia) Edit Biography