Ota Mizuho
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| Mizuho Ōta | |
|---|---|
 Ōta Mizuho |
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| Born | 8 July 1872 Shiojiri city, Nagano prefecture, Japan |
| Died | 2 December 1963 (aged 91) Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan |
| Occupation | Japanese poet and literary scholar |
| Genres | waka poetry |
- In this Japanese name, the family name is Ōta.
Mizuho Ōta (太田水穂 Ōta Mizuho?, 9 December 1876 – 1 January 1955) was the pen-name of a Japanese poet and scholar of Japanese literature, active in Showa period Japan. His real name was Ōta Teiichi, and he occasionally also used another pen name, Mizuhonoya.
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[edit] Early life
Ōta was born in what is now Shiojiri city, Nagano prefecture. While still a student at Nagano Normal School (now Shinshu University), he taught himself the basics of traditional Japanese poetry by studying the ancient Japanese literature classics such as the Man'yōshū and Kokinshū, When be began writing his own poetry, he was able to get in published in the prestigious literary journal, Bungakukai, which was enough to make him realize that life as a professional poet was unrealistic.
[edit] Literary career
On graduation from university with a teaching certificate, he was hired by the local Matsumoto Higher Girls School. His literary interests became a hobby, and he established a waka verse coterie, called Kono-hana Kai, with friends and students. This club resulted in the waka anthologies Tsuyukusa (“Dew Flower”) in 1903 and Sanjo Kojo (“On Mountain, On Lake”) in 1906 brought Ōta wide recognition, although he was only a co-author.
In 1909, Ōta moved to Tokyo and was hired by the Nippon Dental University as a professor of ethics. He married former student and fellow poet Shiga Mitsuko in 1910 and the two continued their creative activities while earning their living as teachers.
In 1915, Ōta began the tanka literary magazine, Chōon, and gradually moved from creating his own verse to writing about the theory of tanka and his researches of the Japanese classics. Ōta's philosophy was that poetry should be primarily symbolic, and spoke out strongly against the tendency to realism exhibited by modern Japanese poets. His waka anthologies include Uncho (“Cloud Bird”), Fuyuna (“Winter Greenery”), Raden (“Mother-of-Pearly Inlay”) and Ryu-o (“Bush Warbler”), which are written in a style continuing the lyric traditions of classical waka poetry.
From 1934, Ōta used a cottage in Kamakura, Kanagawa prefecture as a retreat, and moved their permanently from Tokyo in 1939 until his death. His grave is at the temple of Tokei-ji in Kamakura.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Kato, Shuichi. A History of Japanese Literature: The First Thousand Years . Kodansha (2003). ISBN 4770029349.
