 In 1956, together with other like-minded authors, he formed a literary criticism group called "Shosetsu Kaigi" ("Fiction Conference"), with members supporting each other by reviewing each other's work.One of the products of this collaboration was his novel "Kyojin no Ori", about the María Luz Incident, which was awarded the 60th Naoki Prize (1968下).Saotome claimed that his ancestry from led to his interest in historical matters, and the bulk of his work has been historical fiction set in the Sengoku, Edo or Bakumatsu periods.