TOKYO: The Japanese government on Tuesday picked five recipients of the Order of Culture for fiscal 2020, including playwright Sugako Hashida.

Hashida, 95, produced popular television drama series, such as “Oshin” and “Wataru Seken wa Oni Bakari” (There are demons everywhere), depicting family struggles for 60 years. 

Hashida, who plans to skip the award ceremony due to concerns over infection with the new coronavirus, said she was surprised that “work for TV was recognized as culture.” 

She expressed her eagerness to keep writing. “I want to tackle things that only I can write, such as the life and death of elderly people,” Hashida said. 

The four others are doll maker Sayume Okuda, 83, Jun Kubota, 87, professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo who specializes in Japanese literature, Jun Kondo, 90, a condensed matter physicist and professor emeritus at Toho University, and sculptor Kiichi Sumikawa, 89.

The Order of Culture, Japan’s highest cultural award, will be presented by Emperor Naruhito at the Imperial Palace on Nov. 3.

It will be the first time for a playwright, a doll maker and a condensed matter physicist to receive the Order of Culture.

The government also tapped 20 people as Persons of Cultural Merits. Among them are comedian Kiyoshi Nishikawa, 74, music composer Koichi Sugiyama, 89, film director and cinematographer Daisaku Kimura, 81, and modern artist Shu Takahashi, 90.

Nishikawa, who became widely popular for his “manzai” stand-up comedies with the late comedian Yasushi Yokoyama, said he hopes to “be on stage until around 80 years old.”

“I could hear (Yokoyama) saying: ‘you did a great job. I wish we had received it as a duo'”, said Nishikawa with watery eyes. 

Kimura is known for filming popular movies, such as “Hakkoda-san” (Mount Hakkoda) and “Poppoya” (Railroad Man), and directing “Tsurugidake” (Mount Tsurugidake), all of them featuring magnificent natural landscape. 

“My life is all about movies,” Kimura said. “I don’t want to be away from movies as long as I live,” he said with a carefree smile. 

Sugiyama, who is best known for creating music for the popular role-playing video game series Dragon Quest and often calls himself an uncrowned king, expressed his delight, saying, “I can finally stop using the sour-grapes nickname.” 

Takahashi, who has been creating western-style paintings, block prints, monuments and other work, sent hearty cheers to young aspiring artists, saying that he wants them to think about “for whom and why they want to create artwork.”

JIJI