was a Japanese businessperson, author and poet, also known by 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 ...

s and .

Background

Tsutsumi was the son of

Yasujirō Tsutsumi was a Japanese entrepreneur, politician, and business tycoon who founded a dynasty which became the wealthiest, most influential family of 20th century Japan. Tsutsumi served as the Speaker of the House of Representatives of Japan from May 19 ...

, founder of the

Seibu Railway is a conglomerate based in Tokorozawa, Saitama, Japan, with principal business areas in railways, tourism, and real estate. Seibu Railway's operations are concentrated in northwest Tokyo and Saitama Prefecture; the name "Seibu" is an abbreviati ...

company and a long-serving member, and eventually speaker, of Japan's House of Representatives. He was born in

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 1927. During his childhood, he lived with his mother Misao and half-sister Kuniko. Misao wrote traditional Japanese poetry, which was Tsutsumi's initial introduction to writing. He later took up the practice himself, writing ''waka'' by his teen years; however, he would not publish any of his work until his late 20s. After receiving his degree in economics from 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 by ...

in 1951, he re-enrolled as a literature student and worked as a secretary to his father. He joined the

Seibu Department Stores is a Japanese department store. The first store to trade under the name opened its doors in 1949. Seibu is typical of Japanese department stores with a wide variety of stores doing business on several floors. The company is now a subsidiary of S ...

in 1954. Following the death of his father in 1964, he led the spin-off of its logistics business to form the Saison Group, which eventually included the Seibu department stores, Seiyu supermarkets, Wave (a music shop), Parco (shopping complex), and the

Muji (), or is a Japanese retail company which sells a wide variety of household and consumer goods. Muji's design philosophy is minimalist, and it places an emphasis on recycling, reducing production and packaging waste, and a no-logo or "no-bran ...

and Loft variety store chains. He resigned as head of Saison in 1991 following the collapse of the

Japanese asset price bubble The was an economic bubble in Japan from 1986 to 1991 in which real estate and stock market prices were greatly inflated. In early 1992, this price bubble burst and Japan's economy stagnated. The bubble was characterized by rapid acceleration ...

, but continued as head of the Saison Cultural Foundation, which he founded in 1987. Just before the death of his father Tasujiro, his brother

Yoshiaki Tsutsumi is a Japanese businessman. During the Japanese economic bubble, ''Forbes'' listed Tsutsumi as the wealthiest person in the world during 1987–94 due to his extensive real estate investments through the Seibu Corporation, which he controlled. ...

was nominated as his heir, potentially due to Seiji's brief involvement with the

Japanese Communist Party The is a left-wing to far-left political party in Japan. With approximately 270,000 members belonging to 18,000 branches, it is one of the largest non-governing communist parties in the world. The party advocates the establishment of a democr ...

after the World War Two. In addition to his business career, he has also had a notable career as writer and poet under his pen name Takashi Tsujii, and served as Director of

International PEN PEN International (known as International PEN until 2010) is a worldwide association of writers, founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere. The association has autonomous Internationa ...

Club, Japan. His work has been translated into Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Korean, and Russian. Tsutsumi once described his writing career as an equalizer to his business ventures, and vice versa: "I find that I can get rid of the business stress by writing. And I can avoid getting consumed by writing problems by being preoccupied with business."

Personal life

While working as a political secretary to his father, Tsutsumi met Motoko Yamaguchi. The two married in 1955 and had a son, Kōji; however, the pair divorced around 1964. He later wed Asako Mizuno in Paris in 1968. Mizuno later gave birth to Tsutsumi's second son, Takao.

Death

Tsutsumi died of liver failure in Tokyo on November 25, 2013.

Prizes

* 1994

Tanizaki Prize The Tanizaki Prize (谷崎潤一郎賞 ''Tanizaki Jun'ichirō Shō''), named in honor of the Japanese novelist Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, is one of Japan's most sought-after literary awards. It was established in 1965 by the publishing company Chūō K� ...

for ''Niji no misaki'' (Rainbow Cape, 虹の岬) * 2004

Noma Literary Prize The Noma Literary Prize (''Noma Bungei Shō'') was established in 1941 by the Noma Service Association (''Noma Hōkō Kai'') in accordance with the last wishes of Seiji Noma (1878–1938), founder and first president of the Kodansha publishing co ...

''Chichi no shōzō'' (Portrait of My Father) * 2012

Person of Cultural Merit is an official Japanese recognition and honor which is awarded annually to select people who have made outstanding cultural contributions. This distinction is intended to play a role as a part of a system of support measures for the promotion of ...

The Japan Times: "Yamanaka, Yamada among Order of Culture winners"
/ref>

English translations

* ''A spring like any other : a novel'', translated by Beth Cary. Tokyo ; New York : Kodansha International, 1992. . * ''Disappearance of the butterfly'', translated by Robert Brady & Susanne Akemi Wegmüller. Santa Fe:

Katydid Books Katie Lee (October 23, 1919 – November 1, 2017) was an American folk singer, actress, writer, photographer and environmental activist. From the 1950s, Lee often sang about rivers and white water rafting. She was a vocal opponent of Glen Canyon ...

; Honolulu, Hawaii: Distributed by University of Hawaii Press, 1994. .

Selected works

* ''Hōkō no kisetsu no naka de'', 1969. * ''Shi doku henreki'', 1975. * ''Tsujii Takashi shishū'', 1975. * ''Kemonomichi wa kurai'', 1977. * ''Hako matawa shingō e no koshitsu'', 1978. * ''Shinʾya no dokusho'', Tokyo : Shinchōsha, 1982. * ''Itsumo to onaji haru'' (いつもと同じ春), Tōkyō : Kawade Shobō Shinsha, 1983. * ''Fuan no shūhen'' (不安の周辺), Tokyo : Shinchōsha, 1985. * ''Shōwa no shūen : 20-seiki shogainen no hōkai to mirai'' (昭和の終焉 : 20世紀諸概念の崩壊と未来), Tōkyō : Toreviru : Hatsubai Riburo Pōto, 1986. * ''Anʾya henreki'' (暗夜遍歴), Tōkyō : Shinchōsha, 1987. * ''Yōnaki hito no'' (ようなき人の), Tōkyō : Shichōsha, 1989. * ''Yoshimoto Takaaki "itsutsu no taiwa"'' (吉本隆明「五つの対話」), Tōkyō : Shinchōsha, 1990. * ''Kokkyō no owari : yo no owari no tame no yonshō'' (国境の終り : 世の終りのための四章), Tōkyō : Fukutake Shoten, 1990. * ''Niji no misaki'' (虹の岬), Tōkyō : Chūō Kōronsha, 1994. * ''Koigokoro'' (恋心), Tōkyō : Sakuhinsha, 1995. * ''Dentō no sōzōryoku'' (伝統の創造力), Tōkyō : Iwanami Shoten, 2001. * ''Chichi no shozo'' (Portrait of My Father), Tōkyō : Shinchōsha, 2004.

References

External links

Takashi Tsujii
at J'Lit Books from Japan

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tsutsumi, Seiji 1927 births 2013 deaths Businesspeople from Tokyo PEN International Tsutsumi, Seiji 20th-century Japanese businesspeople 21st-century Japanese businesspeople University of Tokyo alumni Writers from Tokyo 20th-century Japanese poets 20th-century pseudonymous writers