Sumi Kumpoo
Japanese Novelist & Photographic Artist
勲風すみ礼（Japanese pen name）
 

Author Bio
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Sumi Kumpoo is the pen name of Sumie Moriyasu, a Japanese novelist and photographic artist based in Kamakura, Japan. Her fiction blends quiet realism with lyrical, imaginative elements, exploring themes of identity, memory, human connection, self-acceptance, and hope.
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She has published two books with Gentosha, one of Japan's leading publishers: the literary novel Into the Blue and the photographic storybook The Story of Torao and the Dog.
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Before becoming a novelist, she worked as the international manager for the renowned Japanese photographer Masato Terauchi, accompanying him on assignments and projects around the world. This experience deepened her appreciation for visual storytelling and inspired her own photographic work. The stories that emerged from her photographs eventually led her to fiction.
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Since the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, she has remained involved in volunteer activities supporting communities in the Tohoku region.
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Over the past three years, she has written twelve full-length novels spanning literary fiction, speculative fiction, and young adult fiction. Her work combines emotionally grounded characters with subtle elements of magical realism and speculative imagination, inviting readers to discover quiet moments of beauty and resilience in everyday life.
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Through her writing, Sumi Kumpoo hopes to create stories that stay with readers long after the final page—stories that offer comfort, inspire self-acceptance, and celebrate the enduring connections between people, memory, and the natural world.
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Website: https://www.sumi-work.com​