Kenji Miyazawa | |
|---|---|
 Kenji Miyazawa | |
| Native name | 宮沢 賢治 |
| Born | August 27, 1896 Hanamaki, Iwate, Japan |
| Died | September 21, 1933 (aged 37) Hanamaki, Iwate, Japan |
| Occupation | Writer, poet, teacher, geologist |
| Period | Taishō and early Shōwa periods |
| Genre | Children's literature, poetry |
Kenji Miyazawa (宮沢 賢治 or 宮澤 賢治, Miyazawa Kenji, 27 August 1896 – 21 September 1933) 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.[1][2]
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 converting to Nichiren Buddhism. Miyazawa founded the Rasu Farmers Association to improve the lives of peasants in Iwate Prefecture. He was also interested in Esperanto and translated some of his poems into that language.[3]
He died of pneumonia in 1933. Almost totally unknown as a poet in his lifetime, Miyazawa's work gained its reputation posthumously,[4] and enjoyed a boom by the mid-1990s on his centenary.[5] A museum dedicated to his life and works was opened in 1982 in his hometown. Many of his children's stories have been adapted as anime, most notably Night on the Galactic Railroad. Many of his tanka and free verse poetry, translated into many languages, are still popular today.
- ^ Shields, James Mark (May 2017). "Anarcho-Buddhist Utopia: Taishō Tolstoyans". Against Harmony: Progressive and Radical Buddhism in Modern Japan. Oxford University Press. p. 167–202. ISBN 9780190664008.
- ^ 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, p.96.
- ^ David Poulson, Miyazawa Kenji
- ^ Makoto Ueda, Modern Japanese Poets and the Nature of Literature, Stanford University Press, 1983 pp.184–320, p.184
- ^ Kilpatrick 2014, pp. 11–25.