Writer Yang Seok-il Dies at 87; Top Writer Among Koreans Living in Japan with ‘Blood and Bones’

The Yomiuri Shimbun

20:33 JST, June 29, 2024

Writer Yang Seok-il, who was a top writer among Koreans living in Japan with such works as “Blood and Bones,” died on Saturday due to old age. He was 87.

A memorial service will be held for his close relatives.

He was born in Osaka City as a second-generation Korean living in Japan. After his printing factory went bankrupt when he was 29, he worked as a cab driver in Tokyo for 10 years. He made his debut as a writer in 1981 with “Taxi Kyo-so-kyoku” (Manic Taxi Melody), which he wrote based on his own experiences. This work was the basis of Yoichi Sai’s movie “All Under the Moon.”

His magnum opus “Blood and Bones,” based on his father’s life story and depicting human existence and the people who are at the mercy of it, won the Yamamoto Shugoro Award in 1998 and was made into a movie starring Beat Takeshi.