Born in 1963, Natsuhiko Kyogoku is an expert in Japanese folklore with a special interest in supernatural entities called "yokai." Having never published before, he brought the manuscript of The Summer of the Ubume to publishing giant Kodansha on his own. The unusual nature of how The Summer of the Ubume got published and its subsequent success inspired the creation of the Mephisto Award, which honors new mystery and fantasy writers. The Summer of the Ubume is the first in a series of nine novels, the second of which earned Kyogoku the Japan Mystery Writers Award in 1994. Kyogoku would go on to win the prestigious Naoki Award for his book Requiem from the Darkness in 2004.