Novelist Shoichiro Ikemiya, whose work was adapted for the 1994 movie "47 Ronin," died of lung cancer at his Tokyo home Sunday, his family said. He was 83.
The Tokyo native, whose real name was Kaneo Ikegami, became an independent screenwriter in 1952, producing period movies and TV series dealing with assassins, including "Jusannin no Shikaku" ("13 Assassins").
In 1992, he debuted as a novelist at age 69, coming out with "Shijushichinin no Shikaku," which deals with Chushingura, a famous revenge plot involving the 47 vassals of a feudal lord in the 18th century who avenged their master's death. He won a literary award for the work, which was later adapted for the screen, becoming the movie "47 Ronin." Ikemiya was also accused of plagiarism and forced to withdraw two of his novels from bookstores after critics pointed out that descriptions resembled those in novels written by Ryotaro Shiba.