Sakutaro Hagiwara
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Sakutarō Hagiwara (萩原 朔太郎 : Hagiwara Sakutarō, November 1, 1886 - May 11, 1942) was a Japanese author (a writer of free-style or shi poetry).
Hagiwara Sakutarō was born in Maebashi, Gunma Prefecture in 1886. From his early teens, he started to contribute poems to magazines and had his tanka verse published in the literary journals Shinsei and Myojo.
Around 1910, at a time when he was frequently in and out of university, he began to learn the mandolin, with the aim of becoming a professional musician. He later established a mandolin orchestra in his native Gunma.
In 1913, he had tanka and other verse published in Zamboa (Shaddock), a magazine presided over by Kitahara Hakushu, who became his mentor. He also contributed verse to Maeda Yugure's Shika (Poetry) and Chijo Junrei (Earth Pilgrimage), another journal created by Hakushu. The following year, he joined Muro Saisei and Yamamura Bocho in creating a publishing group, Ningyo Shisha (Mermaid Poetry), which gave rise to a literary bulletin, Takujo Funsui (Tabletop Fountain).
In 1916, Hagiwara co-founded the magazine Kanjo (Emotions) with Muro Saisei, and in the following year, he brought out his first verse anthology, Tsuki ni Hoeru (Howling at the Moon). He later wrote additional anthologies, including Aoneko (Blue Cat) and Hyoto (Icy Island), as well literary criticism. He was also a scholar of classical verse and published Shi no Genri (Principles of Poetry) and Kyoshu no shijin Yosa Buson (Nostalgic Poet Yosa Buson).
His unique style of verse expressed his doubts about existence, and his fears, ennui, and anger through the use of dark images and unambiguous wording.
Hagiwara married Ueda Ineko in 1919 and has two daughters, Yoko (b.1920), and Akiko (b.1922) but the marriage ended in 1929. He married again in 1938 to Oya Mitsuko, but divorced again only eighteen months later. He died in 1942 at the age of 57 of acute pneumonia.
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WIKIPEDIA ENTRY ON HAGIWARA SAKUTARÔ
The entry on Sakutarô is riddled with obvious or subtle errors, misreadings of kanji, and various misleading statements. Below you will find a minimally corrected version.
Sakutarô Hagiwara îãå¥ çÒëæòY Hagiwara Sakutarô (November 1, 1886 - May 11, 1942), acclaimed as the “father of modern Japanese poetry,” liberated free verse from the grip of traditional rules . He published many volumes of essays, literary and cultural criticism, and aphorisms.
Hagiwara Sakutarô was born in Maebashi, Gunma Prefecture, in 1886. From his early teens he submitted poems to magazines and had his tanka published in the major literary journals Shinsei and Myôjô.
His mother bought him his first mandolin in the summer of 1903. After spending a futile five semesters as a freshman at two colleges, he dropped out of school. In 1911, when his physician father was still trying to get him to prepare to enter college again, he began studying the mandolin with teachers in Tokyo. He later established a mandolin orchestra in his hometown Maebashi.
In 1913, he published tanka and free verse in Zamboa (Shaddock), a magazine edited by Kitahara Hakushû, who became his mentor and friend. He also contributed verse to Maeda Yûgure's Shiika (Poetry) and Chijô Junrei (Earth Pilgrimage), another journal created by Hakushû. The following year, he joined Murô Saisei and the Christian minister Yamamura Bochô in creating the Ningyo Shisha (Merman Poetry Group), dedicated to the study of music, poetry, and religion. The three writers called their coterie magazine, Takujô Funsui (Tabletop Fountain).
In 1916, Hagiwara co-founded with Murô Saisei the magazine Kanjô (Sentiment), and in the following year he brought out his first free-verse collection, Tsuki ni Hoeru (Howling at the Moon). He published six other verse collections, including Aoneko (Blue Cat) in 1923 and Hyôtô (Icy Island) in 1934, as well other volumes of cultural and literary criticism. He also published Shi no Genri (Principles of Poetry) (1928) and Kyôshû no shijin Yosa Buson (Yosa Buson—Poet of Nostalgia) (1936).
His unique style expressed through dark images, symbols, and expressions that revealed his innermost self his doubts about existence, and his fears, ennui, and anger.
Hagiwara married Ueda Ineko in 1919; they had two daughters, Yôko (1920-2005), and Akirako (b.1922). Ineko deserted her family in the summer of 1929 and that fall Sakutarô divorced her. He married again in 1938 to Ôtani Mitsuko, but after only eighteen months Sakutarô’s mother—who had never registered the marriage in the family register (koseki)—drove her away.
After more than six months of struggle with what appeared to be lung cancer but which doctors diagnosed as pneumonia, he died in May, 1942—not quite six months short of his 56th birthday.
A few gratuitous comments . . .
Shika should be Shiika (Poetry) Sakutarô was not still “in and out” of college in 1910 Ningyo Shisha was not a “publishing group” He did not die at 57 (as simple math will show)—he was 55.5 etc.
Ôya Mitsuko should be Ôtani Mitsuko. These graphs CAN be read Ôya or Ôtani, but the proper reading of her name is the latter. Her older brother was the free-verse poet Ôtani Chûichirô (1902-1963), who appears in biographies of noted literary people.
It is inaccurate to say simply that Sakutarô and Ineko "divorced." She deserted her family for a younger man in June 1929 and ran off to Hokkaido. Sakutarô divorced her formally in October.
It is also misleading to say Mitsuko and Sakutarô divorced. Their marriage was never registered in the koseki (family register), so when Sakutarô’s mother drove Mitsuko out of the house in February, 1939, no divorce was necessary.
Robert Epp, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus of Japanese, UCLA
- Me thinks the good doctor should have just fixed the main article.
