Unpublished Manuscript Discovered! Ayako Sono's 1st Anniversary Memorial Project 'To Live Like a Human' to be Published on March 27. The concluding volume following February's 'To Live Like Myself'.

Kawade Shobo Shinsha Co., Ltd. (Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo / CEO: Yu Onodera) will release 'To Live Like a Human' (price: 1,540 yen including tax), a project commemorating the first anniversary of Ayako Sono's death, on March 27, 2026.

In 1954, while a student at the University of the Sacred Heart, Ayako Sono made her literary debut with the publication of 'Visitors from Afar'.

She depicted the Catholic worldview, human dignity, karma, and forgiveness with a delicate sensibility, making a striking impact on society as one of the few female writers at the time.

● Ayako Sono around the time of her debut (photographed around 1956)

Source: Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain)

After that, she produced numerous bestsellers such as 'For Whom Do You Love?' ('70), 'The Tale of Taro' ('73-'79), 'God's Dirty Hand' ('79), 'The Wisdom of Old Age' ('10), and 'Cleaning Up After My Husband' ('17), and was active as a leading writer for 70 years. For recent readers, her essays on universal themes such as old age and death, life and solitude may be fresh in their memory.

Ms. Sono also received numerous awards for her literary and social contribution activities both in Japan and abroad, including the Vatican's Cross of Merit awarded by the Holy See, the Japan Society of Civil Engineers' Literary Award ('87 for 'The Birth of a Lake'), the Imperial Prize and Japan Art Academy Prize ('93), the NHK Broadcasting Culture Award ('95), the Eiji Yoshikawa Cultural Prize ('97, as representative of the support group for Japanese missionaries abroad), the Yomiuri International Cooperation Prize ('97), and the Kan Kikuchi Prize (2012). She is also known for being the first woman to serve as chairman of The Nippon Foundation for 11 years, from 1995 to 2005.

● First Anniversary Memorial Project: 'To Live Like Myself' and 'To Live Like a Human'

The February 2026 publication 'To Live Like Myself' and the March publication 'To Live Like a Human' are a two-volume memorial project for the first anniversary of her death, containing unpublished manuscripts discovered after Ms. Sono passed away.

The manuscript, dictated at her villa on the Miura Peninsula around 1992, is revived now after more than 30 years as words that have not faded. Dictated essays were rare at the time, and this work connects to her later bestseller, 'The Wisdom of Old Age'.

The discovery of the manuscript and the release of this book were also reported on NHK News.

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