was a Japanese avant-garde poet, art critic, and translator who was active during the Taishō period of

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 ...

. He was associated with Japanese

futurism Futurism ( it, Futurismo, link=no) was an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy, and to a lesser extent in other countries, in the early 20th century. It emphasized dynamism, speed, technology, youth, violence, and objects such ...

Biography

Hirato Renkichi is the pen name of Kawahata Seiichi. He was born in what is now

Takatsuki, Osaka is a city in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. It is located in northern Osaka's Hokusetsu region. As of 2020, the city had an estimated population of 347,944 and a population density of 3,300 persons per km². The total area is 105.31 km². The c ...

, Japan, in 1893. His father was a military sniper who left the family, leaving Hirato and his mother in poverty. He attended

Sophia University Sophia University (Japanese: 上智大学, ''Jōchi Daigaku''; Latin: ''Universitas Sedis Sapientiae'') is a private research university in Japan. Sophia is one of the three ''Sōkeijōchi'' (早慶上智) private universities, a group of the to ...

in Tokyo for three years before dropping out of school. He later studied at Gyosei Gakkō, a Catholic language school. His first publication was in ''Bansō'' (Accompaniment), a literary journal that was edited by the poet and literary critic

Ryuko Kawaji was the pen-name of Kawaki Makoto, a Japanese poet and literary critic active during the Shōwa period of Japan. His Dharma name was Onyōin Metsuyo Chitoku Ryūkō Daikoji (温容院滅与知徳柳虹大居士). Biography Kawaji was born in ...

. Kawaji was his mentor, and occasionally also helped Hirato financially. Hirato wrote poems and art criticism for coterie journals, including ''Gendai Shiika'' (Modern Poetry), ''Taimatsu'' (Torchlight), and the proletariat journal '' Tane maku hito'' (Sower). His translations of

Paul Fort Jules-Jean-Paul Fort (1 February 1872 – 20 April 1960) was a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement. At the age of 18, reacting against the Naturalistic theatre, Fort founded the Théâtre d'Art (1890–93). He also founded and edi ...

Arthur Symons Arthur William Symons (28 February 186522 January 1945) was a British poet, critic and magazine editor. Life Born in Milford Haven, Wales, to Cornish parents, Symons was educated privately, spending much of his time in France and Italy. In 1884 ...

, and

Jean Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (, , ; 5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, filmmaker, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost creatives of the su ...

appeared in various literary magazines. In 1921, 10 years after Marinetti's "

Manifesto of Futurism The ''Manifesto of Futurism'' (Italian: ''Manifesto del Futurismo'') is a manifesto written by the Italian poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti and published in 1909. Marinetti expresses an artistic philosophy called Futurism that was a rejection of ...

", he created flyers of “Nihon miraiha undo dai ikkai no sengen” (First Manifesto of Japanese Futurism) and handed them out in several locations across Tokyo. Hirato died of complications from a pulmonary disease on July 20, 1922. A posthumous collection of his poems was published in 1931 by Kawaji Ryūkō, Kanbara Tai, Hagiwara Kyōjiro, and Yamazaki Yasuo.

Selected works

* ''Hirato Renkichi shishū (Selected Poems of Hirato Renkichi)'', Hirato Renkichi shuppan kankōkai, 1931. * ''Spiral Staircase: collected poems'', translated by Sho Sugita, 2017

References

Hirato Renkichi

{{DEFAULTSORT:Renkichi, Hirato 20th-century Japanese poets 1893 births 1922 deaths