was the pen-name of a journalist and writer of '' senryū'' (short, humorous verse) in late Meiji, Taishō and early

Shōwa period Shōwa may refer to: * Hirohito (1901–1989), the 124th Emperor of Japan, known posthumously as Emperor Shōwa * Showa Corporation, a Japanese suspension and shock manufacturer, affiliated with the Honda keiretsu Japanese eras * Jōwa (Heian ...

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 real name was Inoue Kōichi.

Early life

Inoue was born in

Hagi Hagi, Hadži, or Hadzhi (Хаджи) is a name derived from hajji, an honorific title given to a Muslim person who has successfully completed the Hajj to Mecca, which was later adopted by Christian peoples as a word for ''pilgrim''. People Surname ...

city,

Yamaguchi prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Yamaguchi Prefecture has a population of 1,377,631 (1 February 2018) and has a geographic area of 6,112 Square kilometre, km2 (2,359 Square mile, sq mi). Y ...

, as the son of an ex-''

samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...

'' of the

Chōshū domain The , also known as the , was a domain (''han'') of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan during the Edo period from 1600 to 1871.Deal, William E. (2005) ''Handbook to Life in Medieval and Early Modern Japan,'' p. 81 The Chōshū Domain was base ...

. He was largely self-educated. After working part-time as an elementary school teacher and a reporter for a local newspaper, he moved to

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

in 1900 and began writing the arts column for the

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 ...

, ''Myogi''. Three years later, he joined the '' Nihon Shimbun'' newspaper as a reporter. Using the pen name, "Kenkabō", he began a column called ''Shindai yanagidaru'', which advocated a new style of ''senryū'' poetry.

Literary career

In 1905, Inoue founded a poetry group called ''Ryusonji Senryū Kai'', which brought out its own short-lived

called ''Senryū''. After retiring from working as an employee of the ''Nihon Shimbun'' newspaper, Inoue continued to manage the senryū columns of the '' Kokumin Shimbun'' and ''

Yomiuri Shimbun The (lit. ''Reading-selling Newspaper'' or ''Selling by Reading Newspaper'') is a Japanese newspaper published in Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, and other major Japanese cities. It is one of the five major newspapers in Japan; the other four are t ...

'' newspapers and later resurrected ''Senryū'' in 1912, renaming it ''Taishō Senryū'', to mark the beginning of the new Taishō period. With the arrival of the

in 1926, he again changed the name of the magazine, this time to ''Senryūjin''. He also wrote the essays, ''Proletariat Literature and Bourgeois Literature'', and ''Senryū ōdō ron'' ("Royal Way of Senryū"), and contributed pieces to the magazines, ''Nihon oyobi Nihonjin'' ("Japan and the Japanese") and ''Kaizō'' ("Reconstruction"). Inoue's ''senryū'' are characterized by their grandeur and generosity. Inoue had disciples all around Japan, including Kawakami Santaro, Murata Shugyo and "Kijirō" (novelist

Yoshikawa Eiji was a Japanese historical novelist. Among his best-known novels are revisions of older classics. He was mainly influenced by classics such as ''The Tale of the Heike'', ''Tale of Genji'', ''Water Margin'' and ''Romance of the Three Kingdoms'', m ...

's ''senryū'' pen name). His works include ''Shin senryū rokusen ku'' ("Six Thousand New Senryū"), ''Senryū o tsukuru hito ni'' ("For Senryū Poets") and ''Ko senryū shinzui'' ("The Essence of Classical Senryū"). While staying at the temple of Kencho-ji 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 ...

, he suffered from a

cerebral hemorrhage Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as cerebral bleed, intraparenchymal bleed, and hemorrhagic stroke, or haemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain, into its ventricles, or into both. It is one kind of bleed ...

on September 8, 1934. He died three days later, and his grave is at that temple. Inoue's wife, Inoue Nobuko (1869-1958), was also a ''senryū'' poet and editor, and started the first association for women ''senryū'' poets. However, she is better known for her outspoken criticism of the military during the

Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...

and against Japanese militarism in the 1930s.

References

*Ito, Masako. ''I'm Married to Your Company!: Everyday Voices of Japanese Women''. Rowman & Littlefield (2008). {{DEFAULTSORT:Inoue, Kenkabo 1870 births 1934 deaths Japanese essayists Writers from Yamaguchi Prefecture People of Meiji-period Japan 20th-century Japanese poets 20th-century essayists

Early life

Literary career

See also

References