Kaho Nashiki
Kaho Nashiki (Japanese: 梨木香歩 | Chinese: 梨木香步) (1959–) was born in Kagoshima Prefecture and graduated from Doshisha University in Kyoto. She writes for both children and adults, and much of her writing has fantasy-like motifs with religious or spiritual elements. Her 1994 novel about a girl and her grandmother, Nishi no majo ga shinda (The Witch of the West is Dead), received the JAWC New Talent Award, the Shogakukan Children's Publication Culture Award, and the Niimi Nankichi Children's Literature Award, becoming a huge bestseller that was adapted into a movie. Her other works include Uraniwa (Back Yard), which won the 1995 Fantasy Award for Children's Literature, and Numachi no aru mori o nukete (Through the Swampy Woods), which garnered the 2005 Sense of Gender Award and the 2006 Murasaki Shikibu Literary Prize. Her children's books include Penki-ya (The Painter) and Kanizuka engi (Crab Mound Tale).
“["What happens to people when they die?"When she heard that, her grandmother made a sound that was not like a voice but a moan. And with a deep breath, she replied, "I don't know. To tell you the truth, I've never died."]”