was the

pen name A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, 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 na ...

a noted poet, educator, calligrapher, and martial arts master in

Meiji period The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization ...

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 ...

. His true name was Hoshino Shinnosuke (星野慎之輔). Hoshino Tenchi was one of the founders of the ''Bungakukai''

literary magazine A literary magazine is a periodical devoted to literature in a broad sense. Literary magazines usually publish short stories, poetry, and essays, along with literary criticism, book reviews, biographical profiles of authors, interviews and letter ...

, which was highly influential in the development of modern

Japanese literature Japanese literature throughout most of its history has been influenced by cultural contact with neighboring Asian literatures, most notably China and its literature. Early texts were often written in pure Classical Chinese or , a Chinese-Japanes ...

and

Japanese poetry Japanese poetry is poetry typical of Japan, or written, spoken, or chanted in the Japanese language, which includes Old Japanese, Early Middle Japanese, Late Middle Japanese, and Modern Japanese, as well as poetry in Japan which was written in t ...

Biography

Hoshino was born in the

Nihonbashi is a business district of Chūō, Tokyo, Japan which grew up around the bridge of the same name which has linked two sides of the Nihonbashi River at this site since the 17th century. The first wooden bridge was completed in 1603. The current ...

district of

Edo Edo ( ja, , , "bay-entrance" or "estuary"), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a ''jōkamachi'' (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the ''de facto'' capital of ...

to a family of sugar wholesale merchants. He was educated at the ''

terakoya were private educational institutions that taught reading and writing to the children of Japanese commoners during the Edo period. History The first ''terakoya'' made their appearance at the beginning of the 17th century, as a development from ...

'' in

Japanese calligraphy also called is a form of calligraphy, or artistic writing, of the Japanese language. Written Japanese was originally based on Chinese characters only, but the advent of the hiragana and katakana Japanese syllabaries resulted in intrin ...

and the Chinese classics, but unusually for the time, also in the

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...

. He also attended a preparatory school for

Ochanomizu University is a women's university in the Ōtsuka neighborhood of Bunkyō-ku, Tokyo, Japan. Ochanomizu University is one of the top national universities in Japan. Ochanomizu is the name of a Tokyo neighborhood where the university was founded. Hi ...

. However, even as a student he began to submit humorous stories to magazines, and eventually quit both school and the family business to obtain diplomas in

jiujitsu Jujutsu ( ; ja, link=no, 柔術 , ), also known as jiu-jitsu and ju-jitsu, is a family of Japanese martial arts and a system of close combat (unarmed or with a minor weapon) that can be used in a defensive or offensive manner to kill or subdu ...

and

Japanese swordsmanship is an umbrella term for all ('' ko-budō'') schools of Japanese swordsmanship, in particular those that predate the Meiji Restoration. Some modern styles of kendo and iaido that were established in the 20th century also included modern forms of ...

. In 1886, he entered the Agricultural Department of Tokyo Imperial University, where he majored in

medicinal herb Medicinal plants, also called medicinal herbs, have been discovered and used in traditional medicine practices since prehistoric times. Plants synthesize hundreds of chemical compounds for various functions, including defense and protection ag ...

s. The following year, he was baptized into a

Calvinist Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Ca ...

church, and became acquainted with

Iwamoto Yoshiharu was a Japanese educator and early advocate of women's education during the Meiji era. Biography Iwamoto was born in Izushi, Izushi Domain (in present-day Hyōgo Prefecture), the second son of . At age six, he was adopted into his maternal line ...

, an advocate of women's education and on graduation, accepted a post as an instructor of martial arts, psychology, western-style education, and ''

kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese ...

,'' at the Meiji Girls' School (明治女学校) in Tokyo. In 1890, he helped launch a women's magazine ''Joshigakusei'' ("Schoolgirl"), for which Christian schools in Japan cooperated by sending a cautionary tale and moral encouragement and poetry written by students, with contributions from known writers such as

Kitamura Tokoku was the pen name of Kitamura Montarō (北村門太郎), a Japanese poet and essayist. He was one of the founders of the modern Japanese romantic literary movement. Biography Early life From a samurai-class family of Ashigarashimo District, ...

and

Shimazaki Toson Shimazaki (written: , or ) is a Japanese surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Aki Shimazaki Aki Shimazaki (born 1966 in Gifu, Gifu, Gifu, Japan) is a Canadian novelist and Translation, translator. She moved to Canada in 1981, livin ...

. In 1892, Hoshino helped launch the ''Bungakukai''

, which he helped to edit over a ten-year period. Hoshino developed a literary circle with the various writers who lived near his home in

Kamakura is a city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. Kamakura has an estimated population of 172,929 (1 September 2020) and a population density of 4,359 persons per km² over the total area of . Kamakura was designated as a city on 3 November 1939. Kamak ...

, where he resided from 1893. He is also known for his biographical works on the

Kamakura period The is a period of Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura by the first ''shōgun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo after the conclusion of the Genpei War, which saw the struggle bet ...

historical personages

Mongaku Mongaku (文覚) was a Japanese samurai and Shingon Buddhist priest of the late Heian and early Kamakura period. He was a close associate of shogun Minamoto no Yoritomo, having contributed to the declaration of the Genpei War. Myōe was the discip ...

, and

Abutsu-ni Abutsu-ni (阿仏尼, c. 12221283; the ''-ni'' suffix means "nun") was a Japanese poet and nun. She served as a lady-in-waiting to Princess Kuni-Naishinnō, later known as Empress Ankamon-in. In approximately 1250 she married fellow poet Fujiwara n ...

. Hoshino married a fellow instructor at the Meiji Girls' School, Matsui Man, in 1895. A writer herself, she occasionally published stories disparaging her husband's obsession with the martial arts. In 1900, Hoshino also established an experimental farm in

Chiba Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Chiba Prefecture has a population of 6,278,060 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Chiba Prefecture borders Ibaraki Prefecture to the north, Saitama Prefecture to the ...

. From 1904, Hoshino was vice principal of the newly established Kamakura Women's School. Around this time, he also became the 8th Grand Master of the Yagyū Shingan ryū school of

martial arts Martial arts are codified systems and traditions of combat practiced for a number of reasons such as self-defense; military and law enforcement applications; combat sport, competition; physical, mental, and spiritual development; entertainment; a ...

. He established the ''Bugei-ka'', a department for the transmission of classical

at the Meiji Women's College, where he also taught the

Yagyū Shingan-ryū , is a traditional school ('' koryū'') of Japanese martial arts. Different styles of Yagyū Shingan-ryū, such as Heihojutsu and Taijutsu, assert different founders, Takenaga Hayato and Araki Mataemon respectively, but they all go back to Ushū ...

. After his house was destroyed in the

1923 Great Kantō earthquake The struck the Kantō Plain on the main Japanese island of Honshū at 11:58:44 JST (02:58:44 UTC) on Saturday, September 1, 1923. Varied accounts indicate the duration of the earthquake was between four and ten minutes. Extensive firestorms an ...

, he moved to

Ashiya, Hyōgo 270px, Ashiya City Hall 270px, Tanizaki Junichiro Memorial Museum 270px, Ashiya seen from Ashiya Station is a city in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 95,485 in 45562 households and a population density of 5 ...

, near

Kobe Kobe ( , ; officially , ) is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture Japan. With a population around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Tokyo and Yokohama. It is located in Kansai region, whic ...

, where he continued to teach Japanese calligraphy. He published his memoirs in 1938. In 1948, Hoshino was baptized as a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

. He died of natural causes in 1950.

References

*Croissant, Doris. ''Performing "Nation": Gender Politics in Literature, Theater, and the Visual Arts of China and Japan, 1880-1940''. Brill (2008).

External links

e-texts of works
at

Aozora Bunko Aozora Bunko (, literally the "Blue Sky Library", also known as the "Open Air Library") is a Japanese digital library. This online collection encompasses several thousands of works of Japanese-language fiction and non-fiction. These include out-o ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoshino, Tenchi 1862 births 1950 deaths Japanese educators University of Tokyo alumni Japanese non-fiction writers Japanese poets Japanese Roman Catholics