Kyūya Fukada
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

was a
Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...
writer and mountaineer active during the
Shōwa period Shōwa most commonly refers to: * Hirohito (1901–1989), the 124th Emperor of Japan, known posthumously as Emperor Shōwa ** Shōwa era (昭和), the era of Hirohito from 1926 to 1989 * Showa Corporation, a Japanese suspension and shock manufactu ...
in Japan.


Early life

Kyūya was born in what is now Kaga city,
Ishikawa prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu island. Ishikawa Prefecture has a population of 1,096,721 (1 January 2025) and has a geographic area of 4,186 Square kilometre, km2 (1,616 sq mi). Ishikawa Pr ...
. He attended the
Fujishima High School Fukui Prefectural Fujishima High School (福井県立藤島高等学校, ''Fukui Kenritsu Fujishima Kōtō Gakkō'') is a high school in Fukui, Japan, founded in 1855. The school is operated by the Fukui Prefectural Board of Education. In 2004 th ...
, followed by the preparatory school for the
Tokyo Imperial University The University of Tokyo (, abbreviated as in Japanese and UTokyo in English) is a public university, public research university in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1877 as the nation's first modern university by the merger of several Edo peri ...
, where he studied literature. During this time, he became friends with
Hori Tatsuo was a Japanese translator and writer of poetry, short stories and novels. Early life Born in Tokyo, Hori studied Japanese literature at Tokyo Imperial University under Saisei Murō and Ryūnosuke Akutagawa. In addition to Japanese writers of ...
and
Takami Jun was the pen-name of a Japanese novelist and poet active in Shōwa era Japan. His real name was Takami Yoshio. Early life Takami was born in Mikuni, Fukui (part of the present-day city of Sakai),mountaineering Mountaineering, mountain climbing, or alpinism is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas that have become mounta ...
club, and took the
pen-name A pen name or nom-de-plume 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 name may be used to make the author's na ...
of Kyusan (literally Nine Mountains) as his haiku pseudonym. While a student at Tokyo University, he began writing short stories, and he also fell in love with the poet Kitabatake Yao. Shortly after they started living together, he published his first work. ''Orokko no musume''. The work was well received by critics, emboldening him enough to quit school in 1930 and to devote his energies to writing.


Literary career

In 1932, Fukada published his next work, ''Asunarao''. However, leading literary critics
Kobayashi Hideo was a Japanese author, who established literary criticism as an independent art form in Japan. Early life Kobayashi was born in the Kanda district of Tokyo, where his father was a noted engineer who introduced European diamond polishing tech ...
and
Kawabata Yasunari was a Japanese novelist and short story writer whose spare, lyrical, subtly-shaded prose works won him the 1968 Nobel Prize in Literature, the first Japanese author to receive the award. His works have enjoyed broad international appeal and ...
soon realized that ''Asunarao'' and his previous work ''Orokko no musume'' were not Fukada's works at all, but had been
copy-edit Copy editing (also known as copyediting and manuscript editing) is the process of revising written material (" copy") to improve quality and readability, as well as ensuring that a text is free of errors in grammar, style, and accuracy. ''The Ch ...
ed (or to put it less charitably,
plagiarized Plagiarism is the representation of another person's language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions as one's own original work.From the 1995 '' Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary'': use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of anothe ...
) from the writings of Kitabatake Yao. In March 1940, Fukada formally married Kitabatake Yao. However, in May 1941, Fukada happened to be reunited with his first love, Koba Shigeko (the sister of
Nakamura Mitsuo was the pen-name of a writer of biographies and stage-plays, and a literary critic active in Shōwa period Japan. His real name was Koba Ichirō. Early life Nakamura Mitsuo was born in Tokyo, in the plebeian district of Shitaya, (present-day Akih ...
) in a chance meeting, and by August 1942, Shigeko gave birth to his illegitimate child. His wife soon found out about the affair, and Fukada quickly enlisted in the
Imperial Japanese Army The Imperial Japanese Army (IJA; , ''Dai-Nippon Teikoku Rikugun'', "Army of the Greater Japanese Empire") was the principal ground force of the Empire of Japan from 1871 to 1945. It played a central role in Japan’s rapid modernization during th ...
, asking for an immediate transfer to the front lines war-time China to avoid the potentially more dangerous conflict at home; he served for the next three years in front-line combat units from
Qingdao Qingdao, Mandarin: , (Qingdao Mandarin: t͡ɕʰiŋ˧˩ tɒ˥) is a prefecture-level city in the eastern Shandong Province of China. Located on China's Yellow Sea coast, Qingdao was long an important fortress. In 1897, the city was ceded to G ...
to
Nanjing Nanjing or Nanking is the capital of Jiangsu, a province in East China. The city, which is located in the southwestern corner of the province, has 11 districts, an administrative area of , and a population of 9,423,400. Situated in the Yang ...
. At the end of the war, Fukada was demobilized, and returned to Japan in 1946, but he avoided a reunion with his wife and went back to Shigeko, whom he married as soon as his divorce was finalized. However, Fukada and his new wife were forced to live in poverty over ten years, as his former wife made sure that the earlier issue of his “copy edited” versions of her works was remembered by publishers. Partly due to the stigma he was unable to publish any works for over 10 years. Fukada was reconciled with fellow mountaineer Kobayashi Hideo, who encouraged him to write non-fiction works about mountains and mountaineering. From 1959 to 1963, he wrote ''Nihon Hyakumeizan'' (
100 Famous Japanese Mountains is a book written in 1964 by Mountaineering, mountaineer and author Kyūya Fukada.Hyakumeizan, Hiking Japan ...
), which was an immediate hit, and which won the 16th
Yomiuri Prize The is a literary award in Japan. The prize was founded in 1949 by the Yomiuri Shimbun Company to help form a "strong cultural nation". The winner is awarded two million Japanese yen and an inkstone. Award categories For the first two years, ...
. In 1968, Fukada was made vice-chairman of the
Japan Mountaineering Association Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea in th ...
. In 1966, and again in 1969–1970, he made long journeys in
Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...
of
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
and the
Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
, exploring the mountains of the
Silk Road The Silk Road was a network of Asian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over , it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and religious interactions between the ...
. Fukada died in March 1971 of a
stroke Stroke is a medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemor ...
near the summit of Mount Kayagatake (1704 m) in
Yamanashi prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Yamanashi Prefecture has a population of 787,592 (1 February 2025) and has a geographic area of 4,465 km2 (1,724 sq mi). Yamanashi Prefecture borders Saitama Prefecture to the n ...
. His grave is at the temple of Honko-ji in Daishoji-machi, Kaga city, Ishikawa prefecture. Fukada was honored by the
Japanese government The Government of Japan is the central government of Japan. It consists of legislative, executive and judiciary branches and functions under the framework established by the Constitution of Japan. Japan is a unitary state, containing forty- ...
with a
commemorative postage stamp A commemorative is an object made to memorialize something. Commemorative may refer to: * Commemorative coin, coins that issued to commemorate something * Commemorative medal, a medal to commemorate something * Commemorative plaque, a plate typic ...
issued on 1 July 2003.


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-Japa ...
*
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 ...
*
100 Famous Japanese Mountains is a book written in 1964 by Mountaineering, mountaineer and author Kyūya Fukada.Hyakumeizan, Hiking Japan ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fukada, Kyuya 1903 births 1971 deaths Japanese non-fiction writers People from Kaga, Ishikawa 20th-century non-fiction writers Japanese mountain climbers Imperial Japanese Army personnel of World War II Mountaineering deaths Yomiuri Prize winners Sport deaths in Japan