Ken'ichi Sakemi (酒見 賢一, Sakemi Ken'ichi, November 26, 1963 – November 7, 2023) was a Japanese writer.^[1]

Sakemi is known for his novels with Chinese themes.^[2] And his work is renowned for his unbridled imagination, based on Chinese history but not restricted by it. His works have attracted a lot of attention from other fields and have been adapted into other formats, including manga, anime, and films.^[3]

Ken'ichi Sakemi was born in Kurume, Fukuoka Prefecture. In 1988 he graduated from Aichi University, Faculty of Letters, Department of Philosophy with a major in Eastern philosophy.^[1][3]

In 1989, he won the 1st Japan Fantasy Novel Award for Kōkyū Shōsetsu, and published it as his first novel by Shinchosha.^[1][3] The novel was also nominated for the 102nd Naoki Prize.^[2] The following year, this novel made into the anime television film Like the Clouds, Like the Wind.^[4]

In 1992, he won the Atsushi Nakajima Memorial Prize for Bokkō and Rōkō ni ari. Bokkō was nominated again for the Naoki Award, and was subsequently adapted into a manga and a live-action film.^[1][3] As for Bokkō, Studio Ghibli once considered making an anime film directed by Mamoru Oshii around 1991, and even created imageboards by Katsuya Kondō, but the plan fell through.^[5][6] With Kondo, he has also worked on an unfinished manga called D'arc: Jan-nu Daruku Den.^[7]

In 2000, he won the Jiro Nitta Literary Award for Shūkōtan.^[1]

Sakemi died on November 7, 2023, at the age of 59 due to respiratory failure.^[1][8]

Sakemi's first novel was a fantasy set in a fictional dynasty similar to China's, but since then he has increasingly used real Chinese history as her subject matter.^[7] Nevertheless, he is renowned for his unrestrained imagination, while keeping historical facts in mind.^[3] Beyond China relations, he has also published works such as the military science fiction Seibo no butai and the Victorian-set Katarite no Jijō.^[7]

At the time of the 1989 publication of Kōkyū Shōetsu, few other such works were set in a fictional empire in the Chinese style, with the emperor, the inner palace (residences of the consorts), officials and eunuchs as the prescribed setting. This led to the creation of many later works that were similarly set in a world with Chinese culture and customs, but with a free-flowing storyline that could be about anything and everything, without regard to historical fact.^[2][7] And the fact that that novel won the first Grand Prize also determined the unique character of the Japan Fantasy Novel Award, which has some fantasy, some horror, some speculative novel and some experimental fiction.^[2] He influenced later writers such as Riku Onda.^[9][10][11] His death brought him renewed attention as a writer who pioneered the subsequent Japanese fiction scene, which flourished with Chinese dynastic-style fantasy and mystery.^[2]

• 1989 – Winner of the 1st Japan Fantasy Novel Award: Kōkyū Shōsetsu
• 1990 – Nominated for the 102nd Naoki Prize: Kōkyū Shōsetsu
• 1991 – Nominated for the 104th Naoki Prize: Bokkō
• 1992 – Winner of the Atsushi Nakajima Memorial Award 50 years after his death: Bokkō, Rōkō ni Ari, Pythagoras no Tabi
• 2000 – Winner of the 19th Jirō Nitta Literary Award: Shūkōtan