Fukazawa was born in Isawa, Yamanashi, Japan. His first novel, The Ballad of Narayama(楢山節考Narayama bushiko) won the Chūōkōron Prize, and was twice made into a movie script: first by Keisuke Kinoshita in 1958, and again by Shōhei Imamura in 1983. Imamura's film won the Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or.