was a Japanese writer and

Japanese Communist Party The is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left List of political parties in Japan, political party in Japan. With approximately 270,000 members belonging to 18,000 branches, it is one of the largest non-governing Communis ...

(JCP) politician. Nakano was born in Maruoka, now part of

Sakai, Fukui Maruoka Castle is a city located in Fukui Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 92,210 in 31,509 households and the population density of 550 persons per km². The total area of the city was . Geography Sakai is locate ...

. In 1914 he enrolled in middle school in

Fukui, Fukui is the capital city of Fukui Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 264,217, and a population density of 69.2 persons per km2, in 102,935 households. Its total area is . Most of the population lives in a small central area; ...

, and attended high school in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa and Kanazawa, Ishikawa. In 1924 he entered the German literature department of the

University of Tokyo , abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project b ...

. In 1931 he joined the

, for which he was arrested in 1934. Immediately after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

he rejoined the party, and played a leading role in founding the JCP-affiliated literary society New Japanese Literature Association (''Shin Nihon Bungakkai''). In 1947, Nakano began a three-year term as elected representative to the government. In 1958 he was elected to the party's Central Committee, but in 1964 was expelled due to political conflicts. His autobiographical novels include ''Nami no aima'' (Between the Waves, 1930), ''Muragimo'' (In the Depths of the Heart, 1954), and ''Kō otsu hei tei'' (ABCD, 1965-1969). Nakano received the 1959

Yomiuri Prize The is a literary award in Japan. The prize was founded in 1949 by the Yomiuri Shinbun Company to help form a "strong cultural nation". The winner is awarded two million Japanese yen and an inkstone. Award categories For the first two years, ...

for ''Nashi no hana''.

References

* Miriam Silverberg, ''Changing Song: The Marxist Manifestos of Nakano Shigeharu'', Princeton University Press, 1990. . * Donald Keene, ''Dawn to the West: Japanese literature of the modern era, fiction'', Volume 1, 2nd edition, Columbia University Press, 1998, pages 881-883. . *

J. Thomas Rimer J. Thomas Rimer (born 2 March 1933) is an American scholar of Japanese literature and drama. He is a Professor Emeritus of Japanese Literature, Theatre, and Art at the University of Pittsburgh. He has served as the chief of the Asian Division of th ...

and Van C. Gessel, ''Modern Japanese literature'', Columbia University Press, 2005, page 604. . * Japanese Wikipedia article {{DEFAULTSORT:Nakano, Shigeharu 1902 births 1979 deaths People from Sakai, Fukui Japanese Communist Party politicians Japanese prisoners and detainees Japanese writers Marxist writers Politicians from Fukui Prefecture Writers from Fukui Prefecture Yomiuri Prize winners Japanese Marxists