Sachiko Kashiwaba (1953–) is a native of Iwate Prefecture, where she was born in the coastal city of Miyako. She studied at Tohoku Pharmaceutical University in Sendai, and while still in college made her debut as a children's writer by winning the 1974 Kodansha Award for New Writers of Children's Literature with The Marvelous Village Veiled in Mist (tr. 1987), which inspired the Studio Ghibli animated film Spirited Away. She quickly established herself as a leading children's author, with work ranging from novel-length fantasies to nursery tales. Her stories portray other worlds—fantasy worlds—that are direct extensions of the real world. By venturing into those other realities, her characters discover things about themselves that allow them to return to their place in this world wit ...Read More