''Tane maku Hito'' (種蒔く人, "The Sower") was a Japanese proletarian

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 ...

in the early 1920s.

Overview

''Tane maku Hito'' was a Japanese proletarian literary magazine published in

Akita Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Provinces and prefectures" in ; "Tōhoku" in . Its population is approximately 966,000 (as of 1 October 2019) and its ge ...

, and later

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 ...

, between 1921 and 1923.

Background

Much left-leaning literature had been produced in Japan going back to the beginning of the century. With a few noted exceptions, however, these works tended to be, as Japanese literary historian and critic

Donald Keene Donald Lawrence Keene (June 18, 1922 – February 24, 2019) was an American-born Japanese scholar, historian, teacher, writer and translator of Japanese literature. Keene was University Professor emeritus and Shincho Professor Emeritus of Japan ...

wrote, "immature and sentimental". ''Tane maku Hito''s founder,

Ōmi Komaki was the pen-name of a scholar and translator of French literature in Taishō and Shōwa period Japan. His real name was Komaki Ōmiya. Early life Komaki was born in Tsuchizaki-Minato town, Akita prefecture, as the son of a politician. He dro ...

, a young man from

Tsuchizaki is a neighbourhood located in Akita City, Akita Prefecture, Japan. , the neighbourhood had an estimated population of 21,310 and a population density of 3,400 persons per km². The total area of the neibourhood is . Annexed by the city in 1941 ...

(土崎, a small town in

), studied in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

as a teenager, and he spent

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

there. There, he was heavily influenced by the pacifist movement and, later, the left-leaning ''Clarté'' group led by

Henri Barbusse Henri Barbusse (; 17 May 1873 – 30 August 1935) was a French novelist and a member of the French Communist Party. He was a lifelong friend of Albert Einstein. Life The son of a French father and an English mother, Barbusse was born in Asnièr ...

, Anatole France and others. Komaki personally promised Barbusse that he would organize an equivalent movement when he returned to Japan.

Publication history

The first ''Tane maku Hito'' was founded by Komaki and his friends Yōbun Kaneko (金子洋文) Kenzō Imano (今野賢三) and others in Tsuchizaki in February 1921, and lasted for a scant three issues. Ōmi had recently returned to Japan having participated in Barbusse's anti-war movement. These writers were later joined by

Takamaru Sasaki is an action-adventure video game developed by Nintendo and Human Entertainment and published by Nintendo for the Family Computer Disk System. It was released exclusively in Japan on April 14, 1986. The game was one of the early games released fo ...

(佐々木孝丸) and Masatoshi Muramatsu (村松正俊), and the magazine was revived in

in October. The magazine had an internationalist and anti-militarist outlook, and regularly published literary criticism that emphasized art and literary movements as aspects of the liberation movement. It ceased publication in October 1923, due to government pressure following the

Great Kantō Earthquake Great may refer to: Descriptions or measurements * Great, a relative measurement in physical space, see Size * Greatness, being divine, majestic, superior, majestic, or transcendent People * List of people known as "the Great" *Artel Great (born ...

. Its final issue, as well as the supplement ''Tane-maki Ki'' (種蒔き記), were heavily critical of the massacre of

Koreans Koreans ( South Korean: , , North Korean: , ; see names of Korea) are an East Asian ethnic group native to the Korean Peninsula. Koreans mainly live in the two Korean nation states: North Korea and South Korea (collectively and simply refe ...

and

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

s in the aftermath of the earthquake. In total, 21 issues were published, of which four had been banned by government censors before the earthquake.

Each issue of ''Tane maku Hito'' included an "oath" that, in (perhaps deliberately) obscure language, expressed apparent support of the

Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and ad ...

Reception and legacy

''Tane maku Hito'' is generally credited with launching the proletarian literature movement in Japan. Reprints of the magazine were published in 1961 and 1986.

Notes

References

Works cited

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tane maku Hito 1921 establishments in Japan 1923 disestablishments in Japan Defunct literary magazines published in Japan Magazines established in 1921 Magazines disestablished in 1923 Magazines published in Tokyo Proletarian literature Socialist magazines