was a Japanese critic and author best known for his works on

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

and

culture Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...

Biography

Born in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

, Katō trained as a medical doctor at the University of Tokyo during World War II, specializing in haematology. The experience of living under Japan’s fascist government and the American bombing of Tokyo would shape a lifelong opposition to war, especially nuclear arms, and imperialism. It was also in this period that he began to write. In the immediate postwar period, Katō joined a Japanese-American research team to assess the effects of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. He subsequently travelled to Paris for a research fellowship at the Pasteur Institute. When he returned to Japan, he turned to writing full-time. After participating in a 1958 conference of writers from Asia and Africa, he gave up practicing medicine entirely. While being deeply focused on Japanese culture and classical Chinese literature, Katō gained a reputation for examining Japan through both domestic and foreign perspectives. He served as lecturer at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

, professor at the Free University of Berlin and the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Public university, public research university with campuses near University of British Columbia Vancouver, Vancouver and University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada ...

, guest professor at Ritsumeikan University (Dept. of International Relations), and curator of the Kyoto Museum for World Peace. From 1980 until his death, he wrote a widely read column in the evening culture pages of the

Asahi Shimbun is a Japanese daily newspaper founded in 1879. It is one of the oldest newspapers in Japan and Asia, and is considered a newspaper of record for Japan. The ''Asahi Shimbun'' is one of the five largest newspapers in Japan along with the ''Yom ...

in which he discussed society, culture, and international relations from a literate and resolutely leftist perspective. In 2004, he formed a group with philosopher Shunsuke Tsurumi and novelist Kenzaburō Ōe to defend the war-renouncing Article 9 of the

Constitution of Japan The Constitution of Japan is the supreme law of Japan. Written primarily by American civilian officials during the occupation of Japan after World War II, it was adopted on 3 November 1946 and came into effect on 3 May 1947, succeeding the Meij ...

. He was a polyglot fluent in English, French, German, Italian and Chinese. Ihab Hassan, ''Between the Eagle and the Sun : Traces of Japan'', University of Alabama Press (2015), p. 73

Selected works

* ''Form, Style, Tradition: Reflections on Japanese Art and Society'', Berkeley, University of California Press (1971) * ''A History of Japanese Literature: From the Manyoshu to Modern Times'', Tokyo, Kodansha International (1979) *
A Sheep's Song: A Writer's Reminiscences of Japan and the World
', Berkeley and Los Angeles:

University of California Press The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by faculty ...

(1999) * ''The Japan-China phenomenon: Conflict or compatibility?'', Kodansha America (1974) * ''Six Lives/Six Deaths: Portraits from Modern Japan'' by Robert Jay Lifton, Shuichi Kato, and Michael R. Reich, Yale University Press, New Haven (1979)

References

* Shuichi Kato, A History of Japanese Literature: The First Thousand Years, Kōdansya press. 1919 births 2008 deaths Writers from Tokyo Activists from Tokyo University of Tokyo alumni Academic staff of the University of British Columbia Academic staff of the Free University of Berlin Yale University faculty Academic staff of Sophia University Academic staff of Ritsumeikan University Japanese pacifists Japanese literary critics Japanese encyclopedia editors {{japan-writer-stub