Yasunari Kawabata, the first writer in Japan to win a Nobel Prize in Literature was from Kita-ku. The son of a practicing physician, Kawabata was born right next to Osaka Temmangu Shrine. Both of his parents died when he was young, so during that difficult time he went to live with his grandparents in Ibaraki City. It was around junior high school that he decided to be a writer.