Futaro Yamada, whose unique, romantic and exciting ninja novels sent tidal waves through the Japanese literary world, died of pneumonia at a Tokyo hospital Saturday, his family said Tuesday. He was 79.
A native of Hyogo Prefecture, Yamada, whose real first name was Seiya, won a literary prize sponsored by the magazine Hoseki while studying at Tokyo Medical College, from which he graduated in 1949.
His "Koga nimpo cho" series in 1958 and 1959 stirred a boom of "nimpo," or ninja art. His subsequent 15-volume collection of "nimpo zenshu" in 1963 and 1964 -- about female ninja and Koga, a region associated with the mysterious warriors -- became a best seller.
Some of his ninja novels were made into movies. He also wrote romantic period novels.
Yamada won the Kikuchi Kan prize in 1997 for his longtime career as a novelist and essayist.