Kambara Ariake
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was the pen-name of a Japanese
poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...
and
novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...
active during the Taishō and
Shōwa period Shōwa may refer to: * Hirohito (1901–1989), the 124th Emperor of Japan, known posthumously as Emperor Shōwa * Showa Corporation, a Japanese suspension and shock manufacturer, affiliated with the Honda keiretsu Japanese eras * Jōwa (Heian ...
s of Japan; he is often known as Kambara Yumei.Martin Seymour-Smith, ''Guide to Modern World Literature'' (Macmillan, 2017), p. 828.


Early life

Ariake 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 ...
. His father, an ex''-
samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...
'' from Higo province, was a close associate of Etō Shimpei and active in the
Meiji Restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were ...
. His real name was Kambara Hayao. He was so sickly as an infant that his parents waited for a full year to officially register his name with the local government. He moved to Tokyo together with
Ōki Takatō , was a Japanese statesman during the early Meiji period. He was Governor of Tokyo in 1868 and a member of the Japanese Privy Council in 1889.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Ōki Takatō" in . Biography Ōki was born into a ''samurai' ...
and his mistress, leaving his wife in Higō.


Literary career

While still at middle school, Ariake developed an interest in the works of
Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and Peerage of the United Kingdom, peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and h ...
and
Heine Heine is both a surname and a given name of German origin. People with that name include: People with the surname * Albert Heine (1867–1949), German actor * Alice Heine (1858–1925), American-born princess of Monaco * Armand Heine (1818–1883) ...
, and began writing poetry in a similar style. In 1894, he started a
literary journal 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 letters ...
called ''Ochibo Zōshi'' ("Gleaners’Notes") together with Hayashida Shuncho and Yamagishi Kayo, in which he serialized his first novel, . He escaped
military conscription Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day und ...
during the
First Sino-Japanese War The First Sino-Japanese War (25 July 1894 – 17 April 1895) was a conflict between China and Japan primarily over influence in Korea. After more than six months of unbroken successes by Japanese land and naval forces and the loss of the po ...
as he failed the physical examination. In 1898, Ariake won first prize in a
Yomiuri Shimbun The (lit. ''Reading-selling Newspaper'' or ''Selling by Reading Newspaper'') is a Japanese newspaper published in Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, and other major Japanese cities. It is one of the five major newspapers in Japan; the other four are t ...
contest with his second novel , which was highly praised by one of the judges,
Ozaki Kōyō was a Japanese author and poet. His real name was , and he was also known by various noms de plume including and . Biography Ozaki was the only son of Kokusai (), a well-known carver in the Meiji period. Ozaki is known as a classic Japanes ...
. However, Ariake gave up prose and decided to concentrate only on poetry for the rest of his literary career. His first anthology, '', was published in 1902, and borrowed themes from the ancient Japanese chronicles ''
Kojiki The , also sometimes read as or , is an early Japanese chronicle of myths, legends, hymns, genealogies, oral traditions, and semi-historical accounts down to 641 concerning the origin of the Japanese archipelago, the , and the Japanese imperia ...
'' and ''
Fudoki are ancient reports on provincial culture, geography, and oral tradition presented to the reigning monarchs of Japan, also known as local gazetteers. They contain agricultural, geographical, and historical records as well as mythology and ...
.'' However, the style of his works exhibited influence from western poets, such as
John Keats John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English poet of the second generation of Romantic poets, with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. His poems had been in publication for less than four years when he died of tuberculo ...
and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. He followed with a second anthology of lyrical poetry called ''Dokugen Aika'' in 1903. In this anthology, he also included Japanese translations of the works of Keats, in which he attempted to follow the rhyming pattern of the original
sonnet A sonnet is a poetic form that originated in the poetry composed at the Court of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in the Sicilian city of Palermo. The 13th-century poet and notary Giacomo da Lentini is credited with the sonnet's invention, ...
, but resorting to many archaic and difficult words. Ariake served as the manager of a popular writer's salon called ''Ryudōkai'', which was started in November 1904, by art critic Iwamura Toru at a French restaurant called Ryudōken in Azabu, Tokyo. Ariake and Iwamura were friends, and Ariake made contact with numerous people in the contemporary literary work, including
Kunikida Doppo was a Japanese author of novels and romantic poetry during the Meiji period, noted as one of the inventors of Japanese Naturalism (literature), naturalism. Early life and education Doppo Kunikida was born in Chōshi, Chiba as Tetsuo Kunikida. ...
,
Katai Tayama Katai Tayama (田山 花袋 ''Tayama Katai'', 22 January 1872 – 13 May 1930, born Rokuya Tayama) was a Japanese author. His most famous works include ''Inaka Kyōshi'' (田舎教師, "Rural Teacher," also translated "Country Teacher") and ...
,
Shimazaki Tōson Shimazaki (written: , or ) is a Japanese surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Aki Shimazaki Aki Shimazaki (born 1966 in Gifu, Gifu, Gifu, Japan) is a Canadian novelist and Translation, translator. She moved to Canada in 1981, livin ...
, Masamune Hakuchō, through his job as manager of the Ryudōken. In his fourth anthology, , in 1922, he introduced the 14-line
sonnet A sonnet is a poetic form that originated in the poetry composed at the Court of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in the Sicilian city of Palermo. The 13th-century poet and notary Giacomo da Lentini is credited with the sonnet's invention, ...
, which was previously seldom used in conventional Japanese modern poetry. Its publication gained him a reputation as a leading figure in Japanese
symbolist poetry Symbolism was a late 19th-century art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts seeking to represent absolute truths symbolically through language and metaphorical images, mainly as a reaction against naturalism and realis ...
. However, this came at a time when the literary world was gravitating rapidly towards free verse, and as Ariake refused to adapt to the new trends, he gradually withdrew from literary circles. In 1947 he published of his autobiographical novel, , which was the final poetic work of his career, although he continued to work on translations of European poets as well as literary criticism. In 1948, Ariake was inducted into 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 ...
. Ariake moved from Tokyo to
Kamakura is a city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. Kamakura has an estimated population of 172,929 (1 September 2020) and a population density of 4,359 persons per km² over the total area of . Kamakura was designated as a city on 3 November 1939. Kamak ...
,
Kanagawa prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-densest at . Its geographic area of makes it fifth-smallest. Kana ...
in 1919, but was forced to relocate to
Shizuoka Shizuoka can refer to: * Shizuoka Prefecture, a Japanese prefecture * Shizuoka (city), the capital city of Shizuoka Prefecture * Shizuoka Airport * Shizuoka Domain, the name from 1868 to 1871 for Sunpu Domain, a predecessor of Shizuoka Prefecture ...
city
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 ...
after his house collapsed during 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 ...
of 1923. He returned to Kamakura in 1945, after his house was burned down by the firebombing of Shizuoka during the
Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania. It was geographically the largest theater of the war, including the vast ...
. He continued to live in Kamakura until his death in 1952 of acute
pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...
at the age of 76. From 1945-1946, the
Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...
-winning
Kawabata Yasunari was a Japanese novelist and short story writer whose spare, lyrical, subtly shaded prose works won him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1968, the first Japanese author to receive the award. His works have enjoyed broad international appeal an ...
was a house-guest at Ariake's house in Kamakura. Ariake's grave is located at the temple of Kenso-ji in
Moto-Azabu is a district of Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The district is home to Zenpuku-ji, a Jōdo Shinshū temple also known as . The embassy of China in Tokyo, and former embassy of Manchuria before World War II, are located in this area. Moto-Azabu borders ...
, Tokyo.


See also

*
Japanese literature Japanese literature throughout most of its history has been influenced by cultural contact with neighboring Asian literatures, most notably China and its literature. Early texts were often written in pure Classical Chinese or , a Chinese-Japanes ...
*
List of Japanese authors This is an alphabetical list of writers who are Japanese, or are famous for having written in the Japanese language. Writers are listed by the native order of Japanese names, family name followed by given name to ensure consistency although some ...


References


Further reading

* Kambara, Ariake. ''Ariake: Poems of Love and Longing by the Women Courtiers of Ancient Japan''. Chronicle Books (2000). * Okada, Akiko. '' Keats And English Romanticism in Japan''. Peter Lang (2006). * Tu Kuo-ch'ing. ''Li Chin-fa and Kambara Ariake: The First Symbolist Poets in China and Japan''. Fung Ping Shan Library (1982). ISBN B000H5PAZ8


External links


e-text of Ariake's works
at
Aozora Bunko Aozora Bunko (, literally the "Blue Sky Library", also known as the "Open Air Library") is a Japanese digital library. This online collection encompasses several thousands of works of Japanese-language fiction and non-fiction. These include out-o ...
(Japanese site) {{DEFAULTSORT:Kambara, Ariake Japanese poets 19th-century Japanese novelists 20th-century Japanese novelists 1876 births 1952 deaths People from Tokyo