[2] Two years later Takayama received the 2nd Fumiko Hayashi Literary Prize for The Island on the Side of the Sun (太陽の側の島), a story of a woman and a soldier during wartime told in a series of fictional diary entries and letters.
In addition to ¥1 million in cash, the prize included publication of the story in the mid-April issue of Fujin Kōron.
[7] Later that year her story Ita basho (居た場所, Where I was) was published in Bungei, with critic Atsushi Sasaki of the Nishinippon Shimbun calling it an "unmistakable masterpiece".
[10] Six months later, Takayama's story Come Gather Round, People (カム・ギャザー・ラウンド・ピープル, Kamu gyazā raundo pīpuru), published in the May issue of Subaru, was nominated for the 161st Akutagawa Prize.
[12] Shuri no uma follows a museum archivist in Okinawa and her response to seeing a type of horse native to the island.