was 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 a Japanese poet known for his romantic and gothic poetry patterned after

English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from the English-speaking world. The English language has developed over more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian languages, Anglo-Frisian d ...

. His real name was Kunito Higuchi.

Biography

A native of what is now part of Iida city in

Nagano prefecture is a Landlocked country, landlocked Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Nagano Prefecture has a population of 2,007,682 () and has a geographic area of . Nagano Prefecture borders Niigata Prefecture ...

, Hinatsu graduated from

Waseda University Waseda University (Japanese: ), abbreviated as or , is a private university, private research university in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Founded in 1882 as the Tōkyō Professional School by Ōkuma Shigenobu, the fifth Prime Minister of Japan, prime ministe ...

, and was later a professor of

at Waseda. He was influenced by the works of

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish author, poet, and playwright. After writing in different literary styles throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular and influential playwright ...

and

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic who is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales involving mystery and the macabre. He is widely re ...

, and the Japanese writers

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), ultranationalis ...

and Tatsuhiko Shibusawa. His specialty was the translation of romantic and gothic poetry from English into

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 ...

. Always in poor health, and a fervent

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

, he always had an icon of the

Virgin Mary Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, various titles such as Perpetual virginity ...

in his room. In 1915 Hinatsu founded the magazine ''Shijin'' (''Poets'') with Daigaku Horiguchi and Yaso Saijō. In 1917, Hinatsu published the first anthology of his own works, ''Tenshin no sho'', which combined elements from both

genre Genre () is any style or form of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other fo ...

into what he described as “gothic romanticism”. Using complex symbolism, his works were a distinct contrast from the realistic poetry then in vogue. His critical study, ''Meiji Taisho shi shi'' (''History of Poetry in the Meiji and Taisho eras'', 1929) was the first scholarly history of modern

Japanese poetry Japanese poetry is poetry typical of Japan, or written, spoken, or chanted in the Japanese language, which includes Old Japanese, Early Middle Japanese, Late Middle Japanese, and Modern Japanese, as well as poetry in Japan which was written in th ...

, and was appointed a professor at the Waseda University Department of Literature in 1931. He resigned in 1935, but after receiving his doctorate in literature, returned to Waseda University as a professor in 1939. In 1949, he revised his ''History of Poetry in the Meiji and Taisho eras'', expanding it into three volumes, which were awarded the 1st Yomiuri Prize in 1950. In 1952, Hinatsu accepted a post as professor of English literature at

Aoyama Gakuin University is a private Christian university in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. Originally established in 1874 by missionaries from the Methodist Episcopal Church, it was reconfigured in its current form in 1949 as tertiary component of the Aoyama Gakuin. The u ...

; however, he suffered from a

cerebral hemorrhage Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as hemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain (i.e. the parenchyma), into its ventricles, or into both. An ICH is a type of bleeding within the skull and one kind of stro ...

in 1956, and returned to his native Iida. In 1961, he returned to Tokyo and his post at Aoyama Gakuin University, where he remained until his death in 1971. In 1986, the Hinatsu Kōnosuke Memorial Building was opened in his honor at the Iida Municipal Museum in Iida, Nagano.

References

*Vines, Lois. ''Poe Abroad: Influence Reputation Affinities''. University of Iowa Press. (2002) * Frédéric, Louis. ''Japan Encyclopedia''. Harvard University Press (2002). {{DEFAULTSORT:Hinatsu, Konosuke 1890 births 1971 deaths Catholic poets Japanese non-fiction writers Japanese male poets Japanese literary critics Writers from Nagano Prefecture Japanese Roman Catholic writers Waseda University alumni Academic staff of Waseda University Academic staff of Aoyama Gakuin University 20th-century Japanese poets 20th-century Japanese male writers 20th-century non-fiction writers 20th-century Roman Catholics Japanese male non-fiction writers

Biography

See also

References