Kaijin Akashi () 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 ...

of Shōtarō Noda (, 5 July 1901 – 9 June 1939), a

Japanese poet 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 th ...

whose writing was inspired by his diagnosis of

leprosy Leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease (HD), is a long-term infection by the bacteria ''Mycobacterium leprae'' or ''Mycobacterium lepromatosis''. Infection can lead to damage of the nerves, respiratory tract, skin, and eyes. This nerve damag ...

and confinement to a

leper colony A leper colony, also known by many other names, is an isolated community for the quarantining and treatment of lepers, people suffering from leprosy. '' M. leprae'', the bacterium responsible for leprosy, is believed to have spread from East Af ...

Early life

Akashi was born in Numazu,

Shizuoka prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Shizuoka Prefecture has a population of 3,637,998 and has a geographic area of . Shizuoka Prefecture borders Kanagawa Prefecture to the east, Yamanashi Prefecture to the northea ...

on 5 July 1901. He was the third son of a farmer. At the age of twenty, he graduated from Shizuoka Normal School with a license to teach elementary school. He worked as a teacher until 1926. In 1924, he married Asako Furugōri, also an elementary school teacher. They had two daughters, born in February 1925 and late 1926.

Leprosy and poetry

Akashi began to show symptoms of leprosy in early 1926, and was diagnosed that same spring. He retired from teaching after his diagnosis and was soon subjected to the mandatory quarantine regime in practice in Japan at that time. In the following year, he was hospitalized in Akashi Rakusei hospital (),
明石海人（1901-1939）
Ikeda's website (University of Osaka). which stood in what is now

Nishi-ku, Kobe is one of 9 wards of Japan, wards of Kobe, Japan. It has an area of 137.86 km², and a population of 248,407 (2008). ''Nishi'' in Japanese means west. Nishi-ku occupies the northwestern part of the city. External links Official website of Nish ...

. When this facility closed in 1932, he was moved to the leper colony

Nagashima Aiseien Sanatorium The , or the National Sanatorium Nagashima Aiseien, is a sanatorium on the island of Nagashima in Setouchi, Okayama, Japan founded in 1930 for the treatment of leprosy. Currently, only former leprosy patients reside there. History Background In 1 ...

. While at Nagashima Aiseien, Akashi learned to write traditional Japanese poetry, primarily ''

tanka is a genre of classical Japanese poetry and one of the major genres of Japanese literature. Etymology Originally, in the time of the ''Man'yōshū'' (latter half of the eighth century AD), the term ''tanka'' was used to distinguish "short poem ...

''. His poems were published in the sanatorium's magazine, ''Aisei''; and he became one of the best-known of a group of

patients who wrote poetry and prose about their condition, a genre referred to as "leprosy literature" until the 1940s. Akashi's health deteriorated as a result of his condition, and in autumn of 1936, he went blind. On 11 November 1938, he underwent a

tracheotomy Tracheotomy (, ), or tracheostomy, is a surgical airway management procedure which consists of making an incision (cut) on the anterior aspect (front) of the neck and opening a direct airway through an incision in the trachea (windpipe). The ...

as a result of difficulty in breathing. On 9 June 1939, he died at the sanatorium of

intestinal tuberculosis Extrapulmonary tuberculosis is tuberculosis (TB) within a location in the body other than the lungs. It accounts for an increasing fraction of active cases, from 20 to 40% according to published reports, and causes other kinds of TB. These are co ...

. He published his most successful work, ''Hakubyō,'' in 1939, shortly before his death. It sold over 250,000 copiesThe figure of 250,000 copies is generally cited, but the collection (''Kaijin zenshū'') says 25,000. This much lower figure does not seem to be a typographical error. and drew significant attention to the plight of leprosy patients in Japan. ''Hakubyō'' was a bittersweet work, exploring Akashi's grief over his condition and the loneliness that stemmed from his lengthy mandated isolation, as well as his eventual view that his condition was a gift enabling him to experience beauty and insight beyond the physical world.

Legacy

Akashi's work continues to be read and studied by contemporary scholars. Inspired by Akashi's poetry, Japanese photographer

Atsushi Fujiwara is a Japanese photographer. He is the co-founder of and the main contributor to the Japanese photo magazine ''Asphalt''. His work has been exhibited both in Japan and internationally. Life and career Fujiwara was born in Okayama City in 1963. Hi ...

photographed the decaying remains of Nagashima Aiseien for his 2015 book ''Poet Island''.Kōtarō Iizawa
Fujiwara Atsushi, ''Shijin no shima'' ()
Artscape, 15 April 2015. Four monuments honoring Akashi were erected in his home town of Numazu in 2001.

Books of verse by Akashi

* (''Kaijin ikō''). Tokyo:

Kaizōsha Kaizōsha (改造社) was a major Japanese publishing company in the first half of the 20th century. * (''Akaishi Kaijin zenshū''). 2 vols. Tokyo: Kaizōsha, 1941. , . **New edition. , et al, eds. (''Kaijin zenshū''). 3 vols. Tokyo: Koseisha, 1993. , . *Hiroto Uchida, ed. (''Akaishi Kaijin zenkashū''). Tokyo: Tanka-shinbun-sha, 1978. , . *, ed. (''Akashi Kaijin kashū''). Tokyo: Iwanami, 2012. .

Early life

Leprosy and poetry

Legacy

Books of verse by Akashi

Notes

References

Further reading