Shimako MuraiShimako Murai was born in Hiroshima in 1928. After attending the local Prefectural Girls' School and graduating from Tokyo Woman's Christian University, she was one of the first students to join the Stage Arts Academy (Butai Geijutsu Gakuin) in Tokyo and continued to study for many years with Yoshi Hijikata, founder of the Shingeki movement. She later went on to Charles University in Prague, where in 1967 she obtained a PhD in Theatrical Science, while working with Czech National Theatre. In addition to numerous works published as playwright and author, she was the first to translate several Czech works into Japanese, including operas by Janáček and Smetana and plays by Havel, Kundera and Topol. As director, she collaborated with dramatist Minoru Betsuyaku for over two decades in the group Katatsumuri no Kai. She has won numerous awards, including the Kinokuniya Theatre Award (1968) for translating and directing Kočka na kolejích (Cat on the Rails) and Slavík k večeři (Nightingale for Dinner) by Josef Topol; an award from the Agency for Cultural Affairs in the National Arts Festival (1985), for her production of her own Woman of Hiroshima trilogy; the Maui Peace Award (1986) at Maui Hiroshima Day; a Fringe First Award (1988) for the English version of Woman of Hiroshima Part 3 - A Shower of Leaflets at the Edinburgh Festival; and the Kiyoshi Tanimoto Peace Prize (1997). Parts of the Woman of Hiroshima series have been performed in English in Maui (1986), Tokyo/Hiroshima (1987) and Edinburgh (1988); in German in Berlin (1988); and in French in Avignon (1989) and Geneva (1990). Ano hi, ano ame has been performed in Czech in Prague (1990). Part 2 of Woman of Hiroshima was published in German as Eine Frau aus Hiroshima, in An jenem Tag: literarische Zeugnisse über Hiroshima und Nagasaki, ed. Jürgen Berndt, pub. Verlag Volk und Welt, Berlin, 1986. The entire trilogy was published in Czech (translated by Jan Válek) as Hirosimská Zena, pub. Dilia, 1987. Various other translations (in English, French, Spanish and Russian) are awaiting publication. Outside her literary activities, Murai worked on Hiroshima City's committee to have the Atomic Bomb Dome designated a World Heritage Site (1994-1996), and was for many years a director of the Japan-Czech Association, as well as teaching at Tokyo College of Photography. She is a member of the Japan PEN Club and the Japan Directors Association. Read More Read Less