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Hiroaki Sato (translator)
is a Japanese poet and prolific translator who writes frequently for ''The Japan Times''. He has been called (by Gary Snyder) "perhaps the finest translator of contemporary Japanese poetry into American English".Nicholas J. Teele"The Translator's Voice: an Interview with Hiroaki Sato". in ''Translation Review'', volume 10, University of Texas at Dallas, 1982. Sato received the Japan–U.S. Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature in 1999 for his translation of ''Breeze Through Bamboo'' by Ema Saikō (Columbia University Press, 1997) and in 2017 for ''The Silver Spoon: Memoir of a Boyhood in Japan'' by Kansuke Naka (Stone Bridge Press, 2015). Life The son of a police officer, he was born in Taiwan in 1942. The family fled back to Japan at the end of WWII and encountered a number of hardships, including living in a stable.Hiroaki Sato. "Behind the failure of the Japanese economy." ''Japan Times'', May 28, 2008. He was educated at Doshisha University in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Japan Times
''The Japan Times'' is Japan's largest and oldest English-language daily newspaper. It is published by , a subsidiary of News2u Holdings, Inc. It is headquartered in the in Kioicho, Chiyoda, Tokyo. History ''The Japan Times'' was launched by on 22 March 1897, with the goal of giving Japanese people an opportunity to read and discuss news and current events in English to help Japan participate in the international community. In 1906, Zumoto was asked by Japanese Resident-General of Korea Itō Hirobumi to lead the English-language newspaper '' The Seoul Press''. Zumoto closely tied the operations of the two newspapers, with subscriptions of ''The Seoul Press'' being sold in Japan by ''The Japan Times'', and vice versa for Korea. Both papers wrote critically of Korean culture and civilization, and advocated for Japan's colonial control over the peninsula in order to civilize the Koreans. The newspaper was independent of government control, but from 1931 onward, the pa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yukio Mishima
Kimitake Hiraoka ( , ''Hiraoka Kimitake''; 14 January 192525 November 1970), known by his pen name Yukio Mishima ( , ''Mishima Yukio''), was a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor, model, Shintoist, Ultranationalism (Japan), ultranationalist, and the leader of an attempted coup d'état that culminated in his ''seppuku'' (ritual suicide). Mishima is considered one of the most important Postwar Japan, postwar stylists of the Japanese language. He was List of nominees for the Nobel Prize in Literature#1960%E2%80%931969, nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature five times in the 1960s—including in 1968, when the award went to his countryman and benefactor Yasunari Kawabata. Mishima's works include the novels ''Confessions of a Mask'' and ''The Temple of the Golden Pavilion'', and the autobiographical essay ''Sun and Steel (essay), Sun and Steel''. Mishima's work is characterized by "its luxurious vocabulary and decadent metaphors, its fusion of traditional Japanese and mod ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Matsuo Bashō
; born , later known as was the most famous Japanese poet of the Edo period. During his lifetime, Bashō was recognized for his works in the collaborative '' haikai no renga'' form; today, after centuries of commentary, he is recognized as the greatest master of haiku (then called hokku). He is also well known for his travel essays beginning with '' Records of a Weather-Exposed Skeleton'' (1684), written after his journey west to Kyoto and Nara. Matsuo Bashō's poetry is internationally renowned, and, in Japan, many of his poems are reproduced on monuments and traditional sites. Although Bashō is famous in the West for his hokku, he himself believed his best work lay in leading and participating in renku. As he himself said, "Many of my followers can write hokku as well as I can. Where I show who I really am is in linking haikai verses." Bashō was introduced to poetry at a young age, and after integrating himself into the intellectual scene of Edo (modern Tokyo) he quickl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ozaki Hōsai
was the ''haigo'' (haikai pen name) of Ozaki Hideo, a Japanese people, Japanese Japanese poetry, poet of the late Meiji period, Meiji and Taishō period, Taishō periods of Japan. An alcoholic, Ozaki witnessed the birth of the modern free verse ''haiku'' movement. His verses are permeated with loneliness, most likely a result of the isolation, poverty and poor health of his final years. Biography Ozaki was born in what is now part of Tottori, Tottori, Tottori city in Tottori prefecture. Ozaki's interest in ''haiku'' and writing began at an early age, and he was influenced by the pioneer of free verse style ''haiku'', Ogiwara Seisensui, while still in high school. Ozaki attended the prestigious Tokyo Imperial University, graduating on 16 October 1909. During this period he proposed marriage to , a long-time friend and distant maternal relative. Unfortunately for Ozaki, her older brother opposed the marriage, believing that this maternal connection was too close. Nearly immediate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yagyū Munenori
was a Japanese daimyo, swordsman, and martial arts writer, founder of the Edo branch of Yagyū Shinkage-ryū, which he learned from his father Yagyū "Sekishūsai" Muneyoshi. This was one of two official sword styles patronized by the Tokugawa shogunate (the other one being ''Ittō-ryū''). Munenori began his career in the Tokugawa administration as a hatamoto, a direct retainer of the Tokugawa house, and later had his income raised to 10,000 ''koku'', making him a minor ''fudai daimyō'' (vassal lord serving the Tokugawa), with landholdings around his ancestral village of Yagyū-zato. He also received the title of (). Career Munenori entered the service of Tokugawa Ieyasu at a young age, and later was an instructor of swordsmanship to Ieyasu's son Hidetada. Still later, he became one of the primary advisors of the third shōgun Iemitsu. Shortly before his death in 1606, Sekishusai passed the leadership of Yagyū Shinkage-ryū to his grandson Toshiyoshi.Wilson, William Sco ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Haiku
is a type of short form poetry that originated in Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases composed of 17 Mora (linguistics), morae (called ''On (Japanese prosody), on'' in Japanese) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern; that include a ''kireji'', or "cutting word"; and a ''kigo'', or seasonal reference. However, haiku by classical Japanese poets, such as Matsuo Bashō, also deviate from the 17-''on'' pattern and sometimes do not contain a ''kireji''. Similar poems that do not adhere to these rules are generally classified as ''senryū''. Haiku originated as an opening part of a larger Japanese genre of poetry called renga. These haiku written as an opening stanza were known as ''hokku'' and over time they began to be written as stand-alone poems. Haiku was given its current name by the Japanese writer Masaoka Shiki at the end of the 19th century. Originally from Japan, haiku today are written by authors worldwide. Haiku in English and Haiku in languages other than Japanese, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Renga
''Renga'' (, ''linked poem'') is a genre of Japanese collaborative poetry in which alternating stanzas, or ''ku (''句), of 5-7-5 and 7-7 morae (sound units, not to be confused with syllables) per line are linked in succession by multiple poets. Known as ''tsukuba no michi'' ( ''The Way of Tsukuba'') after the famous Tsukuba Mountain in the Kantō region, the form of poetry is said to have originated in a two-verse poetry exchange by Yamato Takeru and later gave birth to the genres '' haikai'' () and haiku ().Kaneko, Kinjirō. ''Rengashū, Haikaishū''. Tōkyō: Shōgakkan, 2001. Print. The genre was elevated to a literary art by Nijō Yoshimoto (, 1320–1388), who compiled the first imperial renga anthology '' Tsukubashū'' () in 1356. The most famous renga master was Sōgi (, 1421–1502), and Matsuo Bashō (, 1644–1694) after him became the most famous ''haikai'' master. Renga sequences were typically composed live during gatherings of poets, transcribed oral sessio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Burton Watson
Burton Dewitt Watson (June 13, 1925April 1, 2017) was an American sinologist, translator, and writer known for his English translations of Chinese and Japanese literature. Watson's translations received many awards, including the Gold Medal Award of the Translation Center at Columbia University in 1979, the PEN Translation Prize in 1982 for his translation with Hiroaki Sato of ''From the Country of Eight Islands: An Anthology of Japanese Poetry'', and again in 1995 for ''Selected Poems of Su Tung-p'o''. In 2015, at age 88, Watson was awarded the PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation for his long and prolific translation career. Life and career Watson was born on June 13, 1925, in New Rochelle, New York, where his father was a hotel manager. In 1943, at age 17, Watson dropped out of high school to join the U.S. Navy. He was stationed on repair vessels in the South Pacific during the final years of World War II. His ship was in the Marshall Islands when the war ended in Au ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kōtarō Takamura
was a Japanese poet and sculptor. Biography Takamura was the eldest son of Japanese sculptor Takamura Kōun. He graduated from the Tokyo School of Fine Arts in 1902, where he studied sculpture and oil painting. He studied in New York, at the Art Students League of New York City in 1906. While in New York, Takamura studied under the well known sculptor Gutzon Borglum. Takamura's time spent in America was difficult, and had great impact on his sculpture work and literary work. Takamura additionally studied in London in 1907, where he met his best friend Bernard Leach. After finishing his studies in Paris in 1908, he returned to Japan in 1909 and lived there for the rest of his life. His sculptural work shows strong influence both from Western work (especially Auguste Rodin François Auguste René Rodin (; ; 12 November 184017 November 1917) was a French sculptor generally considered the founder of modern sculpture. He was schooled traditionally and took a craftsman-like a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kenji Miyazawa
was a Japanese novelist, poet, and children's literature writer from Hanamaki, Iwate, in the late Taishō and early Shōwa periods. He was also known as an agricultural science teacher, vegetarian, cellist, devout Buddhist, and utopian social activist.Curley, Melissa Anne-Marie, "Fruit, Fossils, Footprints: Cathecting Utopia in the Work of Miyazawa Kenji", in Daniel Boscaljon (ed.)''Hope and the Longing for Utopia: Futures and Illusions in Theology and Narrative'' James Clarke & Co. Lutterworth Press 2015. pp. 96–118. Some of his major works include '' Night on the Galactic Railroad'', '' Kaze no Matasaburō'', '' Gauche the Cellist'', and '' The Night of Taneyamagahara''. Miyazawa converted to Nichiren Buddhism after reading the Lotus Sutra, and joined the Kokuchūkai, a Nichiren Buddhist organization. His religious and social beliefs created a rift between him and his wealthy family, especially his father, though after his death his family eventually followed him in conv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mutsuo Takahashi
is one of the most prominent and prolific poets, essayists, and writers of contemporary Japan, with more than three dozen collections of poetry, several works of prose, dozens of books of essays, and several major literary prizes to his name. He is well known for his open writing about male homoeroticism. He currently lives in the seaside town of Zushi, several kilometers south of Yokohama, Japan. Early life Born in 1937 in the rural southern island of Kyushu, Takahashi spent his early years living in the countryside of Japan. As Takahashi describes in his memoirs published in 1970, his father, a factory worker in a metal plant, died of pneumonia when Takahashi was one hundred and five days old, leaving his mother to fend for herself in the world.Takahashi Mutsuo, ''Jū-ni no enkei'' (Tokyo: Chūō Kōronsha, 1970). Translated by Jeffrey Angles as ''Twelve Views from the Distance'' (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2012). Taking advantage of the opportunities present ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
PEN Translation Prize
The PEN Translation Prize (formerly known as the PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Translation Prize through 2008) is an annual award given by PEN America (formerly PEN American Center) to outstanding translations into the English language. It has been presented annually by PEN America and the Book of the Month Club since 1963. It was the first award in the United States expressly for literary translators. A 1999 ''New York Times'' article called it "the Academy Award of Translation", stating that the award is thus usually not given to younger translators. The distinction comes with a cash prize of USD $3,000. Any book-length English translation published in the United States during the year in question is eligible, irrespective of the residence or nationality of either the translator or the original author. The award is separate from the similar PEN Award for Poetry in Translation. The PEN Translation Prize was called one of "the most prominent translation awards." The award is one of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
