Sei Itō
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, born , was a Japanese
Modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...
writer of poetry, prose and essays, and a translator.


Life

Sei Itō was born in Matsumae,
Hokkaidō is the second-largest island of Japan and comprises the largest and northernmost prefecture, making up its own region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; the two islands are connected by railway via the Seikan Tunnel. The ...
, under the name of Hitoshi Itō. After graduating from Otaru Higher Commercial School (now Otaru University of Commerce), he moved to Tokyo and entered the Tokyo College of Commerce (now
Hitotsubashi University , formerly known as , is a national university, national research university in Tokyo, Japan. Often regarded as Japan’s foremost institution for the study of the social sciences, particularly commerce, economics, law, political science, sociolog ...
), which he left without a graduate. In 1926, he debuted with the poetry collection ''Yukiakari no michi'' (lit. "Snow-lit road"). Together with writers like
Junzaburō Nishiwaki was a Japanese poet and literary critic, active in Shōwa period Japan, specializing in modernism, Dadaism and surrealism. He was also a noted painter of watercolors. Between 1960 and 1966, Nishiwaki received 7 nominations for the Nobel Prize ...
, Riichi Yokomitsu and Tomoji Abe, Itō became an exponent of writers who introduced European Modernist literature into Japan in the literary journal ''Shi to shiron'' ("Poetry and poetic theory"), and kept aiming at what he termed "modernism" in his own writing throughout his life. Starting in 1931, he provided (together with Sadamu Masamatsu and Hisanori Tsuji) the first complete translation of
James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...
's '' Ulysses'' into Japanese in the 1930s. Itō's 1937 novel ''Streets of Fiendish Ghosts'' (''Yūki no machi'') showed the influence of Joyce's
stream of consciousness In literary criticism, stream of consciousness is a narrative mode or method that attempts "to depict the multitudinous thoughts and feelings which pass through the mind" of a narrator. It is usually in the form of an interior monologue which ...
technique, and his style became known as "Shin shinri shugi" ("School of new psychology"). In 1950, he caused controversy for his complete translation of
D. H. Lawrence David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English novelist, short story writer, poet, playwright, literary critic, travel writer, essayist, and painter. His modernist works reflect on modernity, social alienation ...
's ''
Lady Chatterley's Lover ''Lady Chatterley's Lover'' is the final novel by English author D. H. Lawrence, which was first published privately in 1928, in Florence, Italy, and in 1929, in Paris, France. An unexpurgated edition was not published openly in the United Ki ...
'', which became the case of an obscenity trial. He was awarded the
Kikuchi Kan Prize The honors achievement in all aspects of Japanese literary culture. It was named in honor of Kikuchi Kan. The prize is presented annually by the literary magazine '' Bungei Shunjū'' and the Society for the Promotion of Japanese Literature. Histo ...
in 1963 for his ''Nihon kindai bungaku taikei'' ("History of Japanese literary circles") and 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 ...
Prize in 1969.


Selected works

* 1926: ''Yukiakari no michi'' (poetry collection) * 1931: ''A Department Store Called M'' (''M Hyakkaten'', short story) * 1937: ''Streets of Fiendish Ghosts'' (''Yūki no machi'', novel) * 1940–41: ''Tokuno Goro no seikatsu to iken'' (novel) * 1946–48: ''Senkichi Narumi'' (novel) * 1948: ''Shōsetsu no hōhō'' (essay collection) * 1955–1969: ''Nihon kindai bungaku taikei''


English translations

* *


Legacy

The Itō Sei Prize for Literature (Itō Sei bungaku shō) was established in his memory in 1990. Notable recipients include
Kenzaburō Ōe was a Japanese writer and a major figure in contemporary Japanese literature. His novels, short stories and essays, strongly influenced by French and American literature and literary theory, deal with political, social and philosophical issue ...
and Yūko Tsushima.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ito, Sei 1905 births 1969 deaths 20th-century Japanese writers Modernist writers 20th-century Japanese translators People from Matsumae, Hokkaidō Writers from Hokkaido