The character arc of Haruki Murakami

A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record

Born on 12 January 1949 in Kyoto. Between then and now sit a drama degree at Waseda, the jazz bar Peter Cat from 1974 to 1981, a first novel and the Gunzo Prize in 1979, A Wild Sheep Chase in 1982, Norwegian Wood in 1987, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle from 1994, the running memoir in 2007, 1Q84 from 2009 and The City and Its Uncertain Walls in 2023. The line below draws the story so far, in order.

Tap the line to pluck it. Hover or tap any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of his life; the sources are at the foot of the page.

Who is Haruki Murakami?

He started at thirty, after closing time.

He was born in Kyoto in 1949 and took a degree in drama at Waseda University in Tokyo. From 1974 to 1981 he and his wife ran a jazz bar in Kokubunji called Peter Cat. That is what he did for his twenties: served drinks, played records, and did not write anything at all.

He has told the story of the change many times himself. At a baseball game in 1978, at twenty nine, watching an ordinary hit, it occurred to him that he could write a novel. He bought paper and a pen and wrote Hear the Wind Sing at the kitchen table after the bar closed each night. It was published in 1979 and won the Gunzo Prize for New Writers, which is the prize for exactly that: somebody nobody has heard of.

He sold the bar in 1981 and wrote full time. A Wild Sheep Chase came in 1982, Norwegian Wood in 1987, which sold in such numbers in Japan that he left the country for a while, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle from 1994, Kafka on the Shore in 2002, 1Q84 from 2009 and The City and Its Uncertain Walls in 2023. He also runs, every day, and has done for decades, which produced What I Talk About When I Talk About Running in 2007, a book about the relationship between the discipline of one and the discipline of the other. He has won the Tanizaki Prize, the Yomiuri Prize, the World Fantasy Award, the Franz Kafka Prize, the Jerusalem Prize and the Princess of Asturias Award.

The moments

Haruki Murakami's timeline.

The 1970s

Jun 1974

A jazz bar in Tokyo

Milestone, and it changed everything. Seven years serving drinks and playing records, and writing nothing at all.

Apr 1978

A decision at a baseball game

Milestone, and it changed everything. An ordinary hit on an ordinary afternoon, and he went out and bought paper.

Jun 1979

Hear the Wind Sing

Milestone, and it changed everything. Written at the kitchen table after the bar closed, and it won the prize for people nobody has heard of.

The 1980s

1 Jan 1981

Keep the bar, or write

Crossroads, decided.

The paths laid out: sell it and write, taken, or keep the bar. Forty five years of novels followed, read in fifty languages.

Jun 1981

He sold the bar

Milestone, and it changed everything. Seven years of income, given up to write full time at thirty two.

Oct 1982

A Wild Sheep Chase

Milestone, and it changed his direction. A third novel, and the first that reads unmistakably like him.

Jun 1985

The Tanizaki Prize

Milestone, and it changed his direction. His own country's serious literary prize, six years after the first book.

4 Sep 1987

Norwegian Wood

Milestone, and it changed everything. It sold in such numbers in Japan that he left the country for a while.

The 1990s

Jun 1995

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Milestone, and it changed everything. His longest and strangest book to that point, and the Yomiuri Prize for it.

The 2000s

Jun 2006

Kafka, and two prizes

Milestone, and it changed his direction. Two international prizes in one year, for a novelist who writes from a kitchen table habit.

Oct 2007

The running book

Milestone, and it changed everything. Running every day for decades, and a book about why the two disciplines are the same one.

The 2020s

13 Apr 2023

The City and Its Walls

Milestone, and it changed his direction. A novel at seventy four, and a Spanish prize in the same year.

The line reaches today still adding to itself, which is why it is drawn now rather than at the end. What it has set moving is forty five years of books from a man who had written nothing by twenty nine, and a reminder that a life can turn at an ordinary moment on an ordinary afternoon.

What he wrote

Books by Haruki Murakami

1979
Hear the Wind Sing
His first novel, written at a kitchen table after the bar closed. It won the Gunzo Prize for New Writers.
1987
Norwegian Wood
It sold in such numbers in Japan that he left the country for a while afterwards.
1995
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
His longest and strangest book to that point. Yomiuri Prize, 1995.
2002
Kafka on the Shore
Two stories running in parallel, and the book many readers meet him through.
2007
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
On running every day for decades, and why that discipline and writing are the same one.
2009
1Q84
Published in three volumes between 2009 and 2010, and his largest single work.
2023
The City and Its Uncertain Walls
A novel published at seventy four, in the year he received the Princess of Asturias Award.

Your turn

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His wrote nothing at all until he was twenty nine, and started after closing time. Yours is already further along than you think, and drawing it takes about five minutes.

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Haruki Murakami: frequently asked questions

What people ask about his line.

What is Haruki Murakami's character arc?

He ran a Tokyo jazz bar through his twenties and wrote nothing at all, decided at a baseball game at twenty nine that he could write a novel, wrote it after closing time, and has published for forty five years since.

How did Haruki Murakami start writing?

By his own repeated account, at a baseball game in 1978, at twenty nine, watching an ordinary hit, it occurred to him that he could write a novel. He bought paper and wrote it at his kitchen table after the bar closed.

Did Haruki Murakami run a jazz bar?

Yes, Peter Cat, in Kokubunji in Tokyo, from 1974 to 1981, with his wife. He sold it in 1981 to write full time, giving up seven years of a working business on the strength of two short novels.

What is Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami?

His novel of 1987, which sold in such extraordinary numbers in Japan that he left the country for a period afterwards. It is the book that made him a household name at home.

Does Haruki Murakami run?

Yes, every day, and has for decades. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, published in Japan in 2007, is his book about why the discipline of running and the discipline of writing are the same one.

What prizes has Haruki Murakami won?

The Gunzo Prize for New Writers in 1979, the Tanizaki Prize in 1985, the Yomiuri Prize in 1995, the World Fantasy Award and the Franz Kafka Prize in 2006, the Jerusalem Prize in 2009 and the Princess of Asturias Award in 2023.

What did Haruki Murakami study?

Drama, at Waseda University in Tokyo. He opened the jazz bar Peter Cat in 1974 rather than pursuing anything the degree pointed at, and did not begin writing at all until 1978, when he was twenty nine years old.

Where does this timeline of Haruki Murakami's life come from?

From the public record. Character Arc drew every moment on this line from the sources listed at the foot of the page, and the kind and weight of each moment are our editorial reading. Haruki Murakami isn't a Member of Character Arc and has no connection with it, and no feeling is attributed to him.

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Sources

Haruki Murakami, English Wikipedia biography, filed under living people.
His own repeated public account of the 1978 baseball game.
Publisher records for Hear the Wind Sing, Norwegian Wood, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and What I Talk About When I Talk About Running.