ABSTRACT
On 8 February 1945, the 20th Akutagawa Prize was awarded to Shimizu Motoyoshi for his novel Karitachi (The Flight of the Wild Geese). On 15 June 1949, the 21st award of the prize honoured Yuki Shigeko for Hon no hanashi (History of Books) and Kotani Tsuyoshi for Kakushō (Certainty). There is no point in emphasising what for Japan in ruins the four and a half years that separated the two dates meant, but it is certain that the revival of the Akutagawa Prize gave a signal to the media and readers alike: the literary institutions were back in business.
