was the

pen-name A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...

of a scholar and translator of

French literature French literature () generally speaking, is literature written in the French language, particularly by French people, French citizens; it may also refer to literature written by people living in France who speak traditional languages of Franc ...

in Taishō and

Shōwa period Shōwa most commonly refers to: * Hirohito (1901–1989), the 124th Emperor of Japan, known posthumously as Emperor Shōwa ** Shōwa era (昭和), the era of Hirohito from 1926 to 1989 * Showa Corporation, a Japanese suspension and shock manufactu ...

Japan. His real name was Komaki Ōmiya.

Early life

Komaki was born in

Tsuchizaki-Minato town is a neighbourhood located in Akita City, Akita Prefecture, Japan. , the neighbourhood had an estimated population of 21,310 and a population density of 3,400 persons per km². The total area of the neibourhood is . Annexed by the city in 1941, ...

Akita prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Provinces and prefectures" in ; "Tōhoku" in . Its population is estimated 915,691 as of 1 August 2023 and its geographi ...

, as the son of a politician. He dropped out of middle school in order to accompany his father to an international conference of legislators in France, and stayed on, working his way through the Law Department of

Paris University The University of Paris (), known metonymically as the Sorbonne (), was the leading university in Paris, France, from 1150 to 1970, except for 1793–1806 during the French Revolution. Emerging around 1150 as a corporation associated with the ca ...

. He was greatly influenced by the philosophy of

Romain Rolland Romain Rolland (; 29 January 1866 – 30 December 1944) was a French dramatist, novelist, essayist, art historian and Mysticism, mystic who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1915 "as a tribute to the lofty idealism of his literary pro ...

and the '' Clarté'' ("Clarity") movement of the French novelist,

Henri Barbusse Henri Barbusse (; 17 May 1873 – 30 August 1935) was a French novelist, short story writer, journalist, poet and political activist. He began his literary career in the 1890s as a Symbolist poet and continued as a neo-Naturalist novelist; i ...

, which encouraged him to participate in

pacifist Pacifism is the opposition to war or violence. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaigner Émile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress in Glasgow in 1901. A related term is ''a ...

activities.

Literary career

Komaki returned to Japan in 1919 and founded the literary magazine '' Tane Maku Hito'' ("The Sowers") in October 1921, named after the famous painting by the French artist

Jean-François Millet Jean-François Millet (; 4 October 1814 – 20 January 1875) was a French artist and one of the founders of the Barbizon school in rural France. Millet is noted for his paintings of peasant farmers and can be categorized as part of the Realis ...

. He used this as his platform to promote his

and

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

ideals through poems and essays, many of which he wrote. He was one of the first Japanese members of

Comintern The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern and also known as the Third International, was a political international which existed from 1919 to 1943 and advocated world communism. Emerging from the collapse of the Second Internatio ...

, and a pioneer in the

Proletarian literature Proletarian literature refers here to the literature created by left-wing writers mainly for the class-conscious proletariat. Though the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' states that because it "is essentially an intended device of revolution", it is t ...

movement. The movement attracted the attention of

Arishima Takeo was a Japanese people, Japanese Japanese author, novelist, short-story writer and essayist during the late Meiji period, Meiji and Taishō period, Taishō periods. His two younger brothers, and , were also authors. His son was the internationall ...

, and other noted leftist writers. In 1924 another literary magazine ''Bungei Sensen'' ("Literary Battlefront") spun out from the original ''Tane Maku Hito'' group. When Komaki had spare time from promoting

communist revolution A communist revolution is a proletarian revolution inspired by the ideas of Marxism that aims to replace capitalism with communism. Depending on the type of government, the term socialism can be used to indicate an intermediate stage between ...

and avoiding the

thought police In the dystopian novel ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' (1949), by George Orwell, the Thought Police (''Thinkpol'' in Newspeak) are the secret police of the superstate of Political geography of Nineteen Eighty-Four , Oceania, who discover and punish '' ...

, he worked at translating works of

into

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

. His most noted works are translations of

Charles-Louis Philippe Charles-Louis Philippe (; 4 August 1874 – 21 December 1909) French novelist, was born in Cérilly, Allier, Auvergne (region), Auvergne, on 4 August 1874, and died in Paris on 21 December 1909. Life Son of a village clogmaker, Charles-Lou ...

's ''Dans la Petite Ville'' and

André Gide André Paul Guillaume Gide (; 22 November 1869 – 19 February 1951) was a French writer and author whose writings spanned a wide variety of styles and topics. He was awarded the 1947 Nobel Prize in Literature. Gide's career ranged from his begi ...

's biography, ''Charles-Louis Philippe''. After World War II, Komaki became a professor at

Hosei University formerly known as Tokyo University of Law (東京法学社, Tokyo Hogakusha) is a top research university in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. Hosei University and four other private universities in Tokyo are collectively known as "MARCH (Japanese univers ...

, and continued to pursue his pacifist and Marxist philosophies. His works include ''Ikoku no Senso'' (Other Countries’ Wars) and ''Furansu Kakumei Yobanashi'' (Evening Conversations on the French Revolution). Komaki relocated from Tokyo to

Kamakura , officially , is a city of Kanagawa Prefecture in Japan. It is located in the Kanto region on the island of Honshu. The city has an estimated population of 172,929 (1 September 2020) and a population density of 4,359 people per km2 over the tota ...

Kanagawa prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the List of Japanese prefectures by population, second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-dens ...

in 1925. He later spent some years in

French Indochina French Indochina (previously spelled as French Indo-China), officially known as the Indochinese Union and after 1941 as the Indochinese Federation, was a group of French dependent territories in Southeast Asia from 1887 to 1954. It was initial ...

, but returned after World War II to Kamakura, where he lived until his death in 1978 at the age of 84.

References

* Hojo, Tsunehisa. ''Tane maku hito Komaki Omi no seishun''. Chikuma Shobo (1995). (Japanese) * Keene, Donald. ''Dawn to the West''. Columbia University Press (1998). {{DEFAULTSORT:Komaki, Omi 1894 births 1978 deaths Comintern people Japanese communists Japanese essayists Japanese pacifists Japanese Marxist writers Academic staff of Hosei University Writers from Akita Prefecture 20th-century Japanese translators Proletarian literature 20th-century essayists People from Akita (city)

Early life

Literary career

See also

References