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Hiroaki Sato (translator)
is a Japanese poet and prolific translator who writes frequently for ''The Japan Times''. He has been called (by Gary Snyder) "perhaps the finest translator of contemporary Japanese poetry into American English".Nicholas J. Teele"The Translator's Voice: an Interview with Hiroaki Sato".in ''Translation Review'', volume 10, University of Texas at Dallas, 1982. Life The son of a police officer, he was born in Taiwan in 1942. The family fled back to Japan at the end of WWII and encountered a number of hardships, including living in a stable.Hiroaki Sato. "Behind the failure of the Japanese economy." ''Japan Times'', May 28, 2008. He was educated at Doshisha University in Kyoto,Biography at the website of the American Haiku Archives. and moved to the United States in 1968. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Japan Times
''The Japan Times'' is Japan's largest and oldest English-language daily newspaper. It is published by , a subsidiary of News2u Holdings, Inc.. It is headquartered in the in Kioicho, Chiyoda, Tokyo. History ''The Japan Times'' was launched by Motosada Zumoto on 22 March 1897, with the goal of giving Japanese people an opportunity to read and discuss news and current events in English to help Japan to participate in the international community. The newspaper was independent of government control, but from 1931 onward, the paper's editors experienced mounting pressure from the Japanese government to submit to its policies. In 1933, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs appointed Hitoshi Ashida, former ministry official, as chief editor. During World War II, the newspaper served as an outlet for Imperial Japanese government communication and editorial opinion. It was successively renamed ''The Japan Times and Mail'' (1918–1940) following its merger with ''The Japan Ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mutsuo Takahashi
is one of the most prominent and prolific male poets, essayists, and writers of contemporary Japan, with more than three dozen collections of poetry, several works of prose, dozens of books of essays, and several major literary prizes to his name. He is well known for his open writing about male homoeroticism. He currently lives in the seaside town of Zushi, several kilometers south of Yokohama, Japan. Early life Born in 1937 in the rural southern island of Kyushu, Takahashi spent his early years living in the countryside of Japan. As Takahashi describes in his memoirs published in 1970, his father, a factory worker in a metal plant, died of pneumonia when Takahashi was one hundred and five days old, leaving his mother to fend for herself in the world.Takahashi Mutsuo, ''Jū-ni no enkei'' (Tokyo: Chūō Kōronsha, 1970). Translated by Jeffrey Angles as ''Twelve Views from the Distance'' (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2012). Taking advantage of the opportunities pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Biography Of Yukio Mishima
A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes''. It is similar in shape to the Ancient Greek letter alpha, from which it derives. The uppercase version consists of the two slanting sides of a triangle, crossed in the middle by a horizontal bar. The lowercase version can be written in two forms: the double-storey a and single-storey ɑ. The latter is commonly used in handwriting and fonts based on it, especially fonts intended to be read by children, and is also found in italic type. In English grammar, " a", and its variant " an", are indefinite articles. History The earliest certain ancestor of "A" is aleph (also written 'aleph), the first letter of the Phoenician alphabet, which consisted entirely of consonants (for that reason, it is also called an abjad to distinguish it fro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Naoki Inose
is a Japanese politician, journalist, historian, social critic and biographer of literary figures such as Yukio Mishima and Osamu Dazai. He served as Lieutenant Governor of Tokyo from June 2007Jun Hongo"Ishihara's new right-hand man settles in."''Japan Times'', 20 Sep 2007. until becoming Acting Governor on 1 November 2012 following the resignation of Shintaro Ishihara. He was elected Governor in a historical landslide victory in December 2012,Japan Timesbr>Inose wins landslide victory in Tokyo December 18, 2012/ref> but announced his resignation on December 19, 2013, following a political funds-related scandal; his resignation was approved and became effective December 24, 2013. Early life Inose was born in Nagano Prefecture; his father died of angina when Inose was three years old. He attended elementary and junior high schools affiliated with Shinshu University, and ultimately enrolled at Shinshu in 1966. He graduated from Shinshu University in 1970 and moved to Tokyo, where h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Santōka Taneda
was the pen-name of , a Japanese author and haiku poet. He is known for his free verse haiku — a style which does not conform to the formal rules of traditional haiku. Early life Santōka was born in a village located in Yamaguchi prefecture, to a wealthy land-owning family. When he was eleven his mother committed suicide by throwing herself into the family well. Though the exact reason for her action is unknown, according to Santōka's diaries his mother had finally reached the point where she could no longer live with her husband's philandering. Following the incident, Santōka was raised by his grandmother. In 1902, he entered Waseda University in Tokyo as a student of literature. While there, he began drinking heavily, and in 1904, at the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War, he dropped out of school. The documented reason was “nervous breakdown,” which some believe to be a euphemism for frequent and severe drunkenness. By that time his father Takejirō was in such ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sakutarō Hagiwara
was a Japanese writer of free verse, active in the Taishō and early Shōwa periods of Japan. He liberated Japanese free verse from the grip of traditional rules, and he is considered the "father of modern colloquial poetry in Japan". He published many volumes of essays, literary and cultural criticism, and aphorisms over his long career. His unique style of verse expressed his doubts about existence, and his fears, ennui, and anger through the use of dark images and unambiguous wording. Early life Hagiwara Sakutarō was born in Maebashi, Gunma Prefecture as the son of a prosperous local physician. He was interested in poetry, especially in the ''tanka'' format, from an early age, and started to write poetry much against his parents' wishes, drawing on the works of Akiko Yosano for inspiration. From his early teens, he started to contribute poems to literary magazines and had his ''tanka'' verse published in the literary journals ''Bunkō'', ''Shinsei'' and ''Myōjō''. His mot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ema Saikō
was a Japanese painter, poet and calligrapher celebrated for her Chinese-style art in the late Edo period. Her specialisation as a bunjin, a painter of Chinese-style art using monochrome ink, was the bamboo plant which she perfected and which inspired her pen name. Her kanshi poetry is known for being self-reflective and having autobiographical quality. She was one of the most well-known and most praised Japanese artists of her age. Early life Ema Saikō was born in 1787 in Ōgaki, Mino Province. She was the first daughter born into the wealthy Ema family. Not much is known about her mother or siblings. Her father was Ema Ransai, a scholar of rangaku (‘Dutch studies’), a discipline entailing knowledge of chemistry and anatomy brought in by the Dutch, only Western foreigners allowed contact to Japan. He soon recognised his daughter's talent in painting and began to support her education. Ema Saikō began to paint at an early age: her bamboo paintings date back to 1792, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Matsuo Bashō
born then was the most famous poet of the Edo period in Japan. During his lifetime, Bashō was recognized for his works in the collaborative '' haikai no renga'' form; today, after centuries of commentary, he is recognized as the greatest master of haiku (then called hokku). He is also well known for his travel essays beginning with '' Records of a Weather-Exposed Skeleton'' (1684), written after his journey west to Kyoto and Nara. Matsuo Bashō's poetry is internationally renowned, and, in Japan, many of his poems are reproduced on monuments and traditional sites. Although Bashō is famous in the West for his hokku, he himself believed his best work lay in leading and participating in renku. He is quoted as saying, "Many of my followers can write hokku as well as I can. Where I show who I really am is in linking haikai verses." Bashō was introduced to poetry at a young age, and after integrating himself into the intellectual scene of Edo (modern Tokyo) he quickly became we ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ozaki Hōsai
was the ''haigo'' (haikai pen name) of Ozaki Hideo, a Japanese poet of the late Meiji and Taishō periods of Japan. An alcoholic, Ozaki witnessed the birth of the modern free verse ''haiku'' movement. His verses are permeated with loneliness, most likely a result of the isolation, poverty and poor health of his final years. Biography Ozaki was born in what is now part of Tottori city in Tottori prefecture. Ozaki's interest in ''haiku'' and writing began at an early age, and he was influenced by the pioneer of free verse style ''haiku'', Ogiwara Seisensui, while still in high school. Ozaki attended the prestigious Tokyo Imperial University, graduating on 16 October 1909. During this period he proposed marriage to , a long-time friend and distant maternal relative. Unfortunately for Ozaki, her older brother opposed the marriage, believing that this maternal connection was too close. Nearly immediately following the failure of this rejection, Ozaki's heavy drinking, which would ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yagyū Munenori
was a Japanese daimyo, swordsman, and martial arts writer, founder of the Edo branch of Yagyū Shinkage-ryū, which he learned from his father Yagyū "Sekishūsai" Muneyoshi. This was one of two official sword styles patronized by the Tokugawa shogunate (the other one being ''Ittō-ryū''). Munenori began his career in the Tokugawa administration as a hatamoto, a direct retainer of the Tokugawa house, and later had his income raised to 10,000 ''koku'', making him a minor ''fudai daimyō'' (vassal lord serving the Tokugawa), with landholdings around his ancestral village of Yagyū-zato. He also received the title of (). Career Munenori entered the service of Tokugawa Ieyasu at a young age, and later was an instructor of swordsmanship to Ieyasu's son Hidetada. Still later, he became one of the primary advisors of the third shōgun Iemitsu. Shortly before his death in 1606, Sekishusai passed the leadership of Yagyū Shinkage-ryū to his grandson Toshiyoshi.Wilson, William Scott ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Haiku
is a type of short form poetry originally from Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases that contain a ''kireji'', or "cutting word", 17 '' on'' (phonetic units similar to syllables) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern, and a ''kigo'', or seasonal reference. Similar poems that do not adhere to these rules are generally classified as ''senryū''. Haiku originated as an opening part of a larger Japanese poem called renga. These haiku written as an opening stanza were known as ''hokku'' and over time they began to be written as stand-alone poems. Haiku was given its current name by the Japanese writer Masaoka Shiki at the end of the 19th century. Originally from Japan, haiku today are written by authors worldwide. Haiku in English and haiku in other languages have different styles and traditions while still incorporating aspects of the traditional haiku form. Non-Japanese haiku vary widely on how closely they follow traditional elements. Additionally, a minority movement withi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Renga
''Renga'' (, ''linked verse'') is a genre of Japanese collaborative poetry in which alternating stanzas, or ''ku (''句), of 5-7-5 and 7-7 mora (sound units, not to be confused with syllables) per line are linked in succession by multiple poets. Known as ''tsukuba no michi'' ( ''The Way of Tsukuba'') after the famous Tsukuba Mountain in the Kantō region, the form of poetry is said to have originated in a two-verse poetry exchange by Yamato Takeru and later gave birth to the genres ''haikai'' () and haiku ().Kaneko, Kinjirō. ''Rengashū, Haikaishū''. Tōkyō: Shōgakkan, 2001. Print. The genre was elevated to a literary art by Nijō Yoshimoto (, 1320–1388), who compiled the first imperial renga anthology Tsukubashū () in 1356. The most famous renga master was Sōgi (, 1421–1502), and Matsuo Bashō (, 1644–1694) after him became the most famous ''haikai'' master. Renga sequences were typically composed live during gatherings of poets, transcribed oral sessions known as '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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