, born , was a Japanese Modernist writer of poetry, prose and essays, and a translator.

Life

Sei Itō was born in Matsumae,

Hokkaidō is Japan's second largest island and comprises the largest and northernmost prefecture, making up its own region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; the two islands are connected by the undersea railway Seikan Tunnel. The la ...

, under the name of Hitoshi Itō. After graduating from Otaru Higher Commercial School (now

Otaru University of Commerce is a national university in Japan. The main campus of the university is in Otaru, Hokkaido, with a satellite campus in Chūō-ku, Sapporo. Overview The university is often called "Taru-shō" or "Shō-dai". The graduate university has a MBA p ...

), he moved to Tokyo and entered the Tokyo College of Commerce (now Hitotsubashi University), which he left without a graduate. In 1926, he debuted with the poetry collection ''Yukiakari no michi'' (lit. "Snow-lit road"). Together with writers like

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and

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, Itō became an exponent of writers who introduced European Modernist literature into Japan in the literary journal ''Shi to shiron'' ("Poetry and poetic theory"), and kept aiming at what he termed "modernism" in his own writing throughout his life. Starting in 1931, he provided (together with Sadamu Masamatsu and Hisanori Tsuji) the first complete translation of

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's ''

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'' into Japanese in the 1930s. Itō's 1937 novel ''Streets of Fiendish Ghosts'' (''Yūki no machi'') showed the influence of Joyce's stream of consciousness technique, and his style became known as "Shin shinri shugi" ("School of new psychology"). In 1950, he caused controversy for his complete translation of

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's ''

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'', which became the case of an obscenity trial. He was awarded the Kikuchi Kan Prize in 1963 for his ''Nihon kindai bungaku taikei'' ("History of Japanese literary circles") and the

Japan Art Academy is the highest-ranking official artistic organization in Japan. It is established as an extraordinary organ of the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs (文化庁, Bunkacho) in the thirty-first article of the law establishing the Ministry of Ed ...

Prize in 1969.

Selected works

* 1926: ''Yukiakari no michi'' (poetry collection) * 1931: ''A Department Store Called M'' (''M Hyakkaten'', short story) * 1937: ''Streets of Fiendish Ghosts'' (''Yūki no machi'', novel) * 1940–41: ''Tokuno Goro no seikatsu to iken'' (novel) * 1946–48: ''Senkichi Narumi'' (novel) * 1948: ''Shōsetsu no hōhō'' (essay collection) * 1955–1969: ''Nihon kindai bungaku taikei''

English translations

* *

Legacy

The Itō Sei Prize for Literature (Itō Sei bungaku shō) was established in his memory in 1990. Notable recipients include

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and

Yūko Tsushima Satoko Tsushima (30 March 1947 – 18 February 2016), known by her pen name Yūko Tsushima (津島佑子 ''Tsushima Yūko''), was a Japanese fiction writer, essayist and critic. Tsushima won many of Japan's top literary prizes in her career, i ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ito, Sei 1905 births 1969 deaths 20th-century Japanese writers Modernist writers 20th-century Japanese translators Writers from Hokkaido