(3 July 1900 – 12 April 1990) was a Japanese
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...
and
film critic
Film criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films and the film medium. In general, film criticism can be divided into two categories: journalistic criticism that appears regularly in newspapers, magazines and other popular mass-media outlets ...
. His real name was . While born in
Shiga Prefecture, he was raised in
Manchukuo
Manchukuo, officially the State of Manchuria prior to 1934 and the Empire of (Great) Manchuria after 1934, was a puppet state of the Empire of Japan in Northeast China, Manchuria from 1932 until 1945. It was founded as a republic in 1932 afte ...
in
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
due to his father's work on the
South Manchurian Railway
The South Manchuria Railway ( ja, 南満州鉄道, translit=Minamimanshū Tetsudō; ), officially , Mantetsu ( ja, 満鉄, translit=Mantetsu) or Mantie () for short, was a large of the Empire of Japan whose primary function was the operatio ...
,
and then graduated from
Tokyo University.
He began publishing his own poetry in Manchukuo in 1924 and his work was influenced by that colonial context.
His work was praised by
Riichi Yokomitsu
was an experimental, modernist Japanese writer.
Yokomitsu began publishing in dōjinshi such as ''Machi'' ("Street") and ''Tō'' ("Tower") after entering Waseda University in 1916. In 1923, he published ''Nichirin'' ("The Sun"), '' ...
, and he became a prominent figure in
modernist poetry in
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
, pursuing especially
prose poetry
Prose poetry is poetry written in prose form instead of verse form, while preserving poetic qualities such as heightened imagery, parataxis, and emotional effects.
Characteristics
Prose poetry is written as prose, without the line breaks associ ...
. Kitagawa was also a well-known film critic, one who especially praised the work of
Mansaku Itami (the father of
Juzo Itami
, born , was a Japanese actor, screenwriter and film director. He directed eleven films (one short and ten features), all of which he wrote himself.
Early life
Itami was born Yoshihiro Ikeuchi in Kyoto. The name Itami was passed on from his fath ...
), calling it a new, realistic "prose cinema" (''sanbun eiga'') in opposition to the old "poetic cinema" (''inbun eiga'') of
Sadao Yamanaka
was a Japanese film director and screenwriter who directed 26 films between 1932 and 1938. He was a contemporary of Yasujirō Ozu, Mikio Naruse and Kenji Mizoguchi and one of the primary figures in the development of the ''jidaigeki'', or historic ...
,
Daisuke Itō, and others. He was a champion of
neorealism in the postwar era.
He was a standard-bearer of the Scenario-Literature-Movement. He, Shuzo Takiguchi, Akira Asano and other members formed a group called 'Ten Scenario-Researchers'. They advocated the movement from a standpoint considering a scenario a literary genre.
See also
*
Lesescenario
Related to closet drama, a closet screenplay is a screenplay intended not to be produced/performed but instead to be read by a solitary reader or, sometimes, out loud in a small group.
While any published, or simply read, screenplay might reason ...
— Kitagawa referred to
Lesescenario
Related to closet drama, a closet screenplay is a screenplay intended not to be produced/performed but instead to be read by a solitary reader or, sometimes, out loud in a small group.
While any published, or simply read, screenplay might reason ...
in his books ''Reports on Pure Cinema'' (''Junsui Eiga ki'' 純粋映画記 193
and ''Charms of Scenarios'' (''Shinario no miryoku'' シナリオの魅力)
*
Motojiro Kajii admired Kitagawa's
poetry
Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...
*
Iku Takenaka
Iku Takenaka (竹中郁, ''Takenaka Iku'' 1904–1982) was a Japanese poet from Hyogo prefecture. He graduated from Kwansei Gakuin University. His best-known work is a cinepoem ''Rugby''.
He met Ryunosuke Akutagawa who wrote closet screenplays ...
*''
The True Story of Ah Q
''The True Story of Ah Q'' is an episodic novella written by Lu Xun, first published as a serial between December 4, 1921 and February 12, 1922. It was later placed in his first short story collection ''Call to Arms'' (吶喊, Nàhǎn) in 1923 ...
'': He dramatized it in screenplay form
[''Charms of Scenarios'']
References
External links
paper on Kitagawa's :focusing on the connection with scenarioby Taiwanese researcher Yi-ching Tsai
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kitagawa, Fuyuhiko
Japanese film critics
1900 births
1990 deaths
People from Shiga Prefecture
20th-century Japanese poets