Natsuki Ikezawa was born in 1945 in Hokkaido.
After majoring in physics at Saitama National University, he lived for three years in Greece where he translated both Greek poetry and contemporary American literature and published his own collection of poems, The Salty Way (1978).
He has also written some novels and essays, winning the prestigious Akutagawa Prize in 1987 for the novel Still Life, and the Yomiuri Literature Prize in 1992 for the collection of essays, Mother Nature's Breasts.
Ikezawa loves reading, travel and nature. His style posesses a crystalline serenity and clarity. Other major novels include Mariko/Mariquita and The Fall of Macias Guili. He has also written book critiques, such as This Bookish World and Habit of Reading. His essays on nature are collected in Special Voyage to Minami-Torishima and Our Happy Ending.
He currently lives in Okinawa.

Bruce Osborn was born in Los Angeles in 1950. He studied modern art at the University of the Pacific and photography at the Art Center College of Design. After working for "Phonograph Record Magazine," where he was chief photo editor, he became a freelance photographer, movie cameraman, and art director. He moved to Tokyo in 1980. Photo-series include "I Love Lucy," "Burning Desire," "Oyako," "Biography," and "Flying Objects." His work has been exhibited many times. Books include Toshino Asobikata/Photographs of Tokyo, and Oyako: Photographs of Japanese Parents and Children. A CD-ROM of Oyako will be published in 1996.