Nobori Shomu

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nobori Shomu

Nobori Shomu
Born 17 July 1878(1878-07-17)
Amami Ōshima, Japan
Died 22 November 1958 (aged 80)
Tokyo Japan
Occupation Translator
Genres Russian literature
In this Japanese name, the family name is Nobori.

Shomu Nobori (昇曙夢 Nobori Shomu?, 17 July 1878 - 22 November 1958) was the pen-name of a noted translator of Russian literature in Taisho and Showa period Japan. His real name was Nobori Naotaka.

[edit] Biography

Shomu was born in Amami Ōshima, one of the Nansei islands in Kagoshima prefecture. His father was also a scholar of Russian literature. He attended a school run by the Russian Orthodox Church in Tokyo, and later worked as a teacher at the same school. Recruited into the Imperial Japanese Army during the Russo-Japanese War for his Russian language abilities, the war came to an end before he graduated from the Imperial Japanese Army Academy. Despite the unpopularity of things Russian after the war, he contributed articles on Russian culture and literature to magazines and newspapers, and worked on the first comprehensive survey of Russian literature in Japanese, Roshia Bungaku Kenkyu ("Studies on Russian Literature", 1907).

In 1928, he traveled to the Soviet Union on the occasion of the 100th birthday of Tolstoy, and on his return to Japan was the acknowledged Japanese expert on Soviet literature and culture. His translations of various Russian authors from the 1930s and onwards was prolific.

He died in 1958, and his grave is at the Tama Reien, outside of Tokyo.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  • Nobori, Shomu. The Russian impact on Japan literature and social thought. University of Southern California Press (1981). ASIN: B0006Y4HZY
  • Wada, Yoshihide. Roshia bungakusha Nobori Shomu & Akutagawa Ryunosuke ronko. Izumi Shoin (2001) ISBN 4757601050 (Japanese)
Languages