Hisako Matsubara

Who is Hisako Matsubara?

Hisako Matsubara is a Japanese novelist who writes in German and English as well.

Born as the daughter of prominent Shinto priest, she went to high school in Kyoto. She attended Tokyo's International Christian University, where she studied comparative religion and literature. After receiving a BA, she moved to the United States to study theater arts at the Pennsylvania State University, from which she graduated with a MA. She worked for a while as an editor in the US before moving to Europe for further studies. After studying in Zürich, Marburg and Göttingen she finally got a PhD in philosophy from the Ruhr University of Bochum in 1970. She settled in Cologne and worked as journalist and translator. Meanwhile, in 1969 she published a German translation of the ancient Japanese tale Taketori-monogatari with her sister Naoko Matsubara doing illustrations for the book. She had a weekly column at the German newspaper "Die Zeit" and worked on documentaries of the major German TV stations ARD and ZDF.In the late 70s and early 80s she published several novels in German which were quite successful, first in Germany and then internationally as well.