Biography

Midoriko Satō (February 15, 1912 – July 5, 2008) was a Japanese writer. She was also the lover, ghostwriter, and secretary of novelist Kan Kikuchi. Born Mitsue Ishii, in Ryūsenji, Shitaya Ward, Tokyo City, Satō graduated from Seika Girls’ High School. She joined the publishing company Bungeishunjū and served as Kan Kikuchi’s secretary. She also wrote her own novels and ghostwrote for Kikuchi, including his novel Shindō (The New Road). Satō married Einosuke Ishii, who later became the President of Rokkō Publishing. After the war, in 1950, under the pen name Koiso Natsuko, she was nominated for the Naoki Prize for Yukigesho (“Snow Makeup”). In 1961 she published Ningen: Kikuchi Kan (“The Man, Kikuchi Kan”). In her later years, she resided in an elder care facility in Niiza, Saitama Prefecture.

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