Ichiro Maruyama (22 May 1928 – 27 April 2013), who wrote under the pen name You Sano, was a Japanese mystery writer and critic.
Maruyama was born in Omori, Tokyo City (now Tokyo, Ota-ku, Omori). In 1953, he graduated from the University of Tokyo Department of Psychology and began work as a part-time writer in Hokkaido for Yomiuri Shimbun.
In 1958, Maruyama submitted essays to a weekly essay contest co-sponsored by Asahi Shimbun, for which he won third and second prizes. The following year, he published a novel titled A Lead, his official debut in the detective genre. In 1959, he left the newspaper. He produced over a thousand short stories, many of which were made into bunko, but the introduction of a consumption tax led to price revisions, and many publishers stopped printing them.
Jugo Kuroiwa criticized his writing and described it as "novels that do not shed blood and sweat", that go through mystery as an intellectual game but in which, on the other hand, the patterns of work repeatedly become mannered, eliminating eccentric and large-scale crimes, creating realism and a characteristic moderation.
Maruyama named Paul Winterton his favorite writer. He befriended other writers and maintained those friendships. Aside from close friend Jugo Kuroiwa, his other friends included Kyo Takigawa, Tensei Kono, Shinichi Hoshi, Tsutomu Mizukami and Shoji Yuki, young artists who formed a friendship ring they called a "murder club." The group later included Saho Sasazawa, Haruhiko Oyabu, Michio Tsuzuki, Jiro Ikushima, and Masako Togawa.
He won the Japan Mystery Literature Award in 1997 and the Kikuchi Kan Prize in 2009.
On April 27, 2013, he died of pneumonia in hospital at Kawasaki City. He was 84 years old.
Works (approximate translations)
Transparent Assassination (1960)
Metal Sound Disease Incident (April 1961)
Murder Letter Collection (1962)
Surrounding People (October 1991)
After the Turbulence - Best Selection of Secret Inn (November 2000)
Momentary Murderous Intent (1969)
You Sano Mystery Masterpiece collection
Right Outside the Storm (1971)
It Jumped, It Fell (January 2000)
A Sunny Murder (December 1981)