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Shōtarō Ikenami

Japanese writer (1923–1990)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 25, 2026
Entity authorityQ2392807 ↗
Source-derived summary

Shōtarō Ikenami (池波 正太郎, Ikenami Shōtarō; January 25, 1923 – May 3, 1990) was a Japanese author. He wrote a number of historical novels. He won the Naoki Award for popular literature in 1960. Many of his historical novels were adapted for TV and cinema.

Life

Ikenami was born on January 25, 1923, in Shintencho, Asakusa-ku, Tokyo (now 7-chome Asakusa, Taito-ku, Tokyo). His father, Tomijiro, was a clerk at a Nihonbashi tinsel wholesaler. His mother, Suzu Kyosan, was the third daughter of an Asakusa craftsman. She specialized in the creation of metal ornaments. Shotaro was their eldest son.

During the Great Kanto Earthquake, he moved to Urawa, Saitama, with his parents, and stayed there until the age of six (1929).

Editorial summary

“Shōtarō Ikenami” enters the record as japanese writer (1923–1990). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Shōtarō, Ikenami and Japanese can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1923, 1990, 1960, 1929—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1923-01-25. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Shōtarō, Ikenami and Japanese.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Shōtarō Ikenami” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Shōtarō, Ikenami and Japanese provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2392807. VIAF identifies the subject as 169361. The Library of Congress control number is n82006176. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1923, 1990, 1960 and 1929.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Shōtarō Ikenami”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Shōtarō Ikenami primary sources, Shōtarō Ikenami archive and Shōtarō research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Shōtarō Ikenami”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Shōtarō Ikenami” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.