Ginny Tapley Takemori Wins Translation Prize for Poignant Memoir of Life with a Pet Cat

On February 10, Ginny Tapley Takemori received the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation Translation Prize for her translation of Mornings with My Cat Mii (Mornings Without Mii in some markets), a 1999 memoir by the poet and writer Inaba Mayumi about the 20-year relationship with her cat. The prize is sponsored by the foundation and administered by the Society of Authors.

One of the judges, Dr. Victoria Young, said: “In Mornings With My Cat Mii, the surprise lay in how the translation appeared to mirror the melancholic beauty of the original Japanese so effortlessly, presenting in the guise of a personal memoir a poignant reflection upon the nature of relationships, loss, and care amid the changing landscape of Tokyo’s suburbs since the late 1970s.”

Takemori is known particularly for translations of books by Murata Sayaka, including the hit bestseller Convenience Store Woman (from Konbini ningen) and Earthlings (from Chikyū seijin). Her translation of Nosaka Akiyuki’s “Grave of the Fireflies” (“Hotaru no haka”) was published in 2025.

Bryan Karetnyk was the runner-up for The Little Sparrow Murders, a classic mystery by Yokomizo Seishi that sees links between a children’s song and a series of murders.

The prize considered translations from Japanese published in Britain between April 1, 2024, and March 31, 2025, with £3,000 awarded to the winner and £1,000 to the runner-up.

The Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation Translation Prize Shortlist (2025)

• Mornings with My Cat Mii, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori (winner) from Mī no inai asa (1999) by Inaba Mayumi
• The Little Sparrow Murders, translated by Bryan Karetnyk (runner-up) from Akuma no temari uta (1959) by Yokomizo Seishi
• Hunchback, translated by Polly Barton from Hanchibakku (2023) by Ichikawa Saou
• Mina’s Matchbox, translated by Stephen Snyder from Mīna no kōshin (2006) by Ogawa Yōko

Previous Winners

• (2024) The Kobe Hotel: Memoirs, translated by Masaya Saito from Kōbe and Zoku Kōbe (1975) by Saitō Sanki
• (2023) The Boy and the Dog, translated by Alison Watts from Shōnen to inu (2020) by Hase Seishū (Bandō Toshihito)

The Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation Translation Prize is one of nine Society of Authors translation prizes for 2025.

(Originally published in English. Banner photo © Natalie Thorpe.)