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Revision as of 21:50, 23 December 2014 editCatflap08 (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users3,144 edits Undid revision 639378876 by Dekimasu (talk)which he was a member of← Previous edit Latest revision as of 03:40, 25 November 2024 edit undoDekimasu (talk | contribs)Administrators56,412 edits the cite is fine, but it does not ever call him a utopian socialist (it calls him "Buddhist humanist" and the section on him is labeled "Kenji and Agrarian Buddhist Socialism"; the use of "utopian" in relation to him is put in scare quotes in this source) 
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{{Short description|Japanese writer (1896–1933)}}
{{japanese name|Miyazawa}}

{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see ] --> {{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see ] -->
| name = Kenji Miyazawa | name = Kenji Miyazawa
| image = Miyazawa Kenji.jpg | image = Miyazawa Kenji.jpg
| caption = Kenji Miyazawa
| imagesize = 192px
| caption = Kenji Miyazawa | native_name = 宮沢 賢治
| native_name_lang = ja
| pseudonym =
| birth_date = {{birth date|1896|8|27}} | birth_date = {{Birth date|1896|8|27}}
| birth_place = ], ] | birth_place = ], Japan
| death_date = {{death date and age|1933|9|21|1896|8|27}} | death_date = {{Death date and age|1933|9|21|1896|8|27}}
| death_place = Hanamaki, Iwate, Japan | death_place = Hanamaki, Iwate, Japan
| occupation = Writer, poet, teacher, geologist
| death_cause = ]
| period = ] and early ]s
| occupation = Writer, Poet, Teacher, Geologist
| genre = Children's literature, poetry
| nationality = ]
| period = early ]
| genre = Children’s literature, poetry
| notableworks =
| influences =
| influenced =
| website =
}} }}


{{nihongo|'''Kenji Miyazawa'''|宮沢 賢治|Miyazawa Kenji|extra=27 August 1896 – 21 September 1933}} was a ] ] and author of ] in the early ]. He was also known as a devout member of ], ],<ref></ref> and ]. {{nihongo|'''Kenji Miyazawa'''|宮沢 賢治 {{lang|en|or}} 宮澤 賢治|Miyazawa Kenji|extra=27 August 1896 – 21 September 1933}} was a Japanese novelist, poet, and ] writer from ], in the late ] and early ]. He was also known as an ] teacher, vegetarian, cellist, devout Buddhist, and utopian social activist.<ref name="Shields 2017">{{cite book |last= Shields |first= James Mark |date= May 2017|title=Against Harmony: Progressive and Radical Buddhism in Modern Japan |chapter=Anarcho-Buddhist Utopia: Taishō Tolstoyans |url= https://academic.oup.com/book/5321/chapter-abstract/148077101#310186923 |location= |publisher= ]|page= 167–202|isbn= 9780190664008}}</ref><ref name="Curley" >Curley, Melissa Anne-Marie, "Fruit, Fossils, Footprints: Cathecting Utopia in the Work of Miyazawa Kenji", in Daniel Boscaljon (ed.), , James Clarke & Co./ /Lutterworth Press 2015. pp.96–118, p.96.</ref>


Some of his major works include '']'', '']'', '']'', and '']''. Miyazawa converted to ] after reading the ], and joined the ], 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 ] and translated some of his poems into that language.<ref name="dapo">David Poulson, </ref>
==Early life==
Miyazawa was born in what is now the ], ] as the eldest son of a wealthy ]. From an early age, he was disturbed by what he perceived to be the social inequity between his well-to-do family and the impoverished farmers in the area from whom his family profited by lending them money. Compared to his contemporaries, he demonstrated little interest in romantic love or sex, both in his private life and in his literary work.<ref>{{cite book |last=Pulvers |first=Roger |editor-last=Miyazawa |editor-first=Kenji |others=Trans. Roger Pulvers |title=Strong in the Rain: Selected Poems |publisher=Bloodaxe Books |year=2007 |pages=9–28 |chapter=Introduction |isbn=978-1-85224-781-2 |quote=Kenji, it must be remembered, was a man who displayed no particular interest in romantic love or sex.}}</ref>


He died of pneumonia in 1933. Almost totally unknown as a poet in his lifetime, Miyazawa's work gained its reputation posthumously,<ref name="Ueda" >], , Stanford University Press, 1983 pp.184–320, p.184</ref> and enjoyed a boom by the mid-1990s on his centenary.<ref name="kilpatrick 11-25">Kilpatrick 2014, pp. 11–25.</ref> 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 ], most notably '']''. Many of his ] and free verse poetry, translated into many languages, are still popular today.
In 1918, he graduated from Morioka Agriculture and Forestry College (modern ]). He was a bright student, so his academic advisor wanted him as an assistant professor. However, differences with his father over religion (he converted to the modern incarnation of ] termed '']'' or ''Nichirenshugi'' (日蓮主義), becoming a follower of the radical nationalist leader of the Nichirenshugi movement, ], and joining Tanaka's Kokuchūkai organization in 1920), and his repugnance for the family pawnshop business (he yielded his inheritance to his younger brother), created much unhappiness in his early life, and in 1921, he departed Hanamaki for ].<ref>On Uneven Ground, Miyazawa Kenji and the Making of Place in Modern Japan, Stanford University Press, Note 69, ISBN 978-0-8047-7686-8</ref>


==Literary career== ==Biography==
]
In Tokyo, while staying with a friend, he was introduced to the works of poet ], and was encouraged to start writing. After eight months in Tokyo, when he began to write children's stories, he returned to Hanamaki due to the illness and subsequent death of his beloved younger sister.


Miyazawa was born in the town of ],<ref name=kodansha>'']'' article "Miyazawa Kenji" (p. 222–223). 1983. Tokyo: Kodansha.</ref> ], the eldest son<ref name=kinenkai1>{{cite web |url=http://www.miyazawa-kenji.com/kinenkai.html |title=Ryakenpu, Omona Dekigoto |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |website=Miyazawa Kenji Memorial Society website |publisher=Miyazawa Kenji Memorial Society |access-date=May 1, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150429105015/http://www.miyazawa-kenji.com/kinenkai.html |archive-date=April 29, 2015 |url-status=dead }}.</ref> of a wealthy pawnbroking couple, Masajirō and his wife Ichi.<ref name=kodansha/><ref name="Cimarelli" >Massimo Cimarelli (ed.tr.), , Volume Edizioni srl, 2014 p.3</ref><ref name="keene 284">Keene 1999, p. 284.</ref> The family were also pious followers of the ], as were generally the farmers in that district.<ref name="Mitsutani" /> His father, from 1898 onwards, organized regular meetings in the district where monks and Buddhist thinkers gave lectures and Miyazawa, together with his younger sister, took part in these meetings from an early age.<ref name="Cimarelli" /> The area was an impoverished rice-growing region, and he grew to be troubled by his family's interest in money-making and social status.<ref name="kilpatrick 11-25"/> Miyazawa was a keen student of natural history from an early age, and also developed an interest as a teenager in poetry, coming under the influence of a local poet, ].<ref name="kilpatrick 11-25"/> After graduating from middle school, he helped out in his father's pawnshop.<ref>Ueda p.217</ref> By 1918, he was writing in the ] genre, and had already composed two tales for children.<ref name="kilpatrick 11-25"/> In high school he converted to ] after reading the ], a move which was to bring him into conflict with his father.<ref name="kilpatrick 11-25"/>
He found employment as a teacher in ] at Hanamaki Agricultural High School (花巻農学校). Saving his meagre salary, he was able to finance the publication of his first collection of children's stories and ]s, ''Chūmon no Ōi Ryōriten'' (注文の多い料理店, ]) and a portion of a collection of free-verse poems, ''Haru to Shura'' (春と修羅, ]) in 1924. Although neither was a commercial success, his work came to the attention of poets ] and Shimpei Kusano, who admired his writing greatly and introduced it to the literary world.
In 1918, he graduated from {{Nihongo|Morioka Agriculture and Forestry College|盛岡高等農林学校|Morioka Kōtō Nōrin Gakkō|extra=now the Faculty of Agriculture at ]}}.<ref name=Fujii>{{cite speech |title=Heisei Nijū-nendo Kokuritsu Daigaku Hōjin Iwate Daigaku Sotsugyōshiki Shikiji |trans-title=President’s Address at the Graduation Ceremony of Iwate University, School Year 2008 |script-title=ja:平成20年度国立大学法人岩手大学卒業式式辞 |language=ja |author=Katsumi Fujii |date=March 23, 2009 |location=Morioka |url=http://www.iwate-u.ac.jp/shokai/aisatu/g_sikiji20090323.htm |quote=1918年三月、本学農学部の前身である盛岡高等農林学校を卒業した賢治は、農業実践の指導を先ず教育の現場に求め、3年後に稗貫農学校(現在の花巻農業 高校)の教員となります。その後、詩に童話に旺盛な文芸活動を展開しましたが、病を得てさらに12年後、わずか37歳で帰らぬ人となったことは、ご承知の 通りです。 |access-date=April 30, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304081413/http://www.iwate-u.ac.jp/shokai/aisatu/g_sikiji20090323.htm |archive-date=March 4, 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref> He embraced vegetarianism in the same year.<ref name="kilpatrick 11-25"/> A bright student, he was then given a position as a special research student in geology, developing an interest in soil science and in fertilizers.<ref name="kilpatrick 11-25"/> Later in 1918, he and his mother went to ] to look after his younger sister {{Nihongo|Toshi|宮澤トシ|Miyazawa Toshi}}, who had fallen ill while studying in ]<ref name=kinenkai1/><ref name="keene 284"/> He returned home after his sister had recovered early the following year.<ref name="kilpatrick 11-25"/><ref name="keene 284-5">Keene 1999, pp. 284–285.</ref>


As a result of differences with his father over religion, his repugnance for commerce, and the family pawnshop business in particular (he yielded his inheritance to his younger brother Seiroku),<ref name="kilpatrick 11-25"/> he left Hanamaki for Tokyo in January 1921.<ref name="kilpatrick 11-25"/><ref name=kodansha/> There, he joined ]'s ], and spent several months in dire poverty preaching Nichiren Buddhism in the streets.<ref name="kilpatrick 11-25"/> After eight months in Tokyo, he took once more to writing children's stories, this time prolifically, under the influence of another Nichiren priest, Takachiyo Chiyō, who dissuaded him from the priesthood by convincing him that Nichiren believers best served their faith by striving to embody it in their profession.<ref name="kilpatrick 11-25"/> He returned to Hanamaki due to the renewed illness of his beloved younger sister.<ref name=kodansha/><ref name="keene 285">Keene 1999, p. 285.</ref> At this time he became a teacher at the Agricultural School in Hanamaki.<ref name="keene 285"/> On November 27, 1922, Toshi finally succumbed to her illness and died at age 24.<ref name=kinenkai1/> This was a traumatic shock for Miyazawa, from which he never recovered.<ref name="keene 285"/> He composed three poems on the day of her death, collectively entitled {{Nihongo|"Voiceless Lament"|無声慟哭|Musei Dōkoku}}.<ref name="kilpatrick 11-25"/><ref name="miyamatsu 169">Miyakubo and Matsukawa 2013, p. 169.</ref>{{efn|The individual poems are entitled "Eiketsu no Asa" (永訣の朝), "Matsu no Hari" (松の針) and "Musei Dōkoku" (無声慟哭).<ref name="miyamatsu 169"/>}}
As a teacher, his students viewed him as passionate but rather eccentric, as he insisted that learning came through actual, firsthand experience of things. He often took his students out of the classroom, not only for training, but just for enjoyable walks in the hills and fields. He also had them put on plays they wrote themselves.


]
From 1926 until his death in 1933, Miyazawa struggled to improve the material and spiritual life of the impoverished peasants of his native Iwate. He introduced new agricultural techniques and new varieties of seeds. He left his position as instructor at Hanamaki Agriculture School in 1926 to establish the Rasu Farmers Association. At the detached house of his family, where he was staying at the time, he gathered a group of youths from nearby farming families and lectured on ]. The association also engaged in plays, music, and other cultural activities.


He found employment as a teacher in ] at Hanamaki Agricultural High School (花巻農学校).<ref name="kilpatrick 11-25"/> He managed to put out a collection of poetry, {{Nihongo|''Haru to Shura''|春と]||extra="Spring and the Demon"}} in April 1924, thanks to some borrowings and a major subvention from a producer of ].<ref>Hoyt Long ,</ref> His collection of children's stories and fairy tales, '']'' (注文の多い料理店, "The Restaurant of Many Orders"), also self-published, came out in December of the same year.<ref name="kilpatrick 11-25"/><ref name=kodansha/> Although neither were commercial successes &mdash; they were largely ignored &mdash; his work did come to the attention of the poets ] and ], who admired his writing greatly and introduced it to the literary world.<ref name=kodansha/>
In 1926 he learned ] and tried to translate some of his Japanese poems into the Esperanto language; the translated pieces were published in 1953, long after his death.


Kenji resigned his post as a teacher in 1926 to become a farmer and help improve the lot of the other farmers in the impoverished north-eastern region of Japan by sharing his theoretical knowledge of agricultural science,<ref name=kodansha/><ref name="keene 288">Keene 1999, p. 288.</ref> by imparting to them improved, modern techniques of cultivation. He also taught his fellow farmers more general topics of cultural value, such as music, poetry, and whatever else he thought might improve their lives.<ref name=kodansha/><ref name="keene 288"/> He introduced them to classical music by playing to audiences compositions from Beethoven, Schubert, Wagner and Debussy on his gramophone.<ref name="Mitsutani">Margaret Mitsutani, "The Regional as the Center: The Poetry of Miyazawa Kenji", in Klaus Martens, Paul Duncan Morris, Arlette Warken (eds.) , Königshausen & Neumann, 2003 pp.66–72 p.67.</ref> In August 1926 he established the {{nihongo|Rasuchijin Society|羅須地人協会|Rasuchijin Kyōkai|extra=also called the "Rasu Farmers Association"}}.<ref name="kilpatrick 11-25"/> When asked what "Rasuchijin" meant, he said it meant nothing in particular, but he was probably thinking of {{nihongo|''chi''|地||extra="earth"}} and {{nihongo|''jin''|人||extra="man"}}.<ref name="keene 288"/> He introduced new agricultural techniques and more resistant strains of rice.<ref>Mitsutani p.67.</ref> At the detached house of his family, where he was staying at the time, he gathered a group of youths from nearby farming families and lectured on ].{{citation needed|date=May 2015}} The Rasuchijin Society also engaged in literary readings, plays, music and other cultural activities.<ref name="kilpatrick 11-25"/> It was disbanded after two years as Japan was being swept up by a militarist turn, in 1928, when the authorities closed it down.<ref name="kilpatrick 11-25"/><ref name="keene 288"/>
His writings from this period show sensitivity for the land and for the people who work in it. A prolific writer of children's stories, many that appear superficially to be light or humorous, all contain stories intended for moral education of the reader. He wrote some works in prose and some stage plays for his students and left behind a large amount of '']'' and ], most of which was discovered and published posthumously. His poetry, which has been translated into numerous languages, has a considerable following to this day. A number of his children’s works have been made into animated movies (]) in Japan.


Not all of the local farmers were grateful for his efforts, with some sneering at the idea of a city-slicker playing farmer, and others expressing disappointment that the fertilizers Kenji introduced were not having the desired effects.<ref name="keene 289">Keene 1999, p. 289.</ref> He advocated natural fertilizers, while many preferred a Western chemical 'fix', which, when it failed, did not stop many from blaming Kenji.<ref name="Mitsutani" /> Their reservations may have also persisted as he had not wholly broken from economic dependence on his father, to whom farmers were often indebted when their crops failed, in addition to his defection to the Lotus Sect soured their view, as farmers in his area were, like his own father, adherents of the Pure Land Sect.<ref name="Mitsutani" /> Kenji in turn did not hold an ideal view of the farmers; in one of his poems<!-- Keene gives the Japanese title as "Sono Chichi to au" ("Meeting His Father"), but however I Google I can't find the Japanese orthography for the Japanese title, so I'm reluctant to quote it. ~Hijiri88, May 2015. --> he describes how a farmer bluntly tells him that all his efforts have done no good for anyone.<ref name="keene n197">Keene 1999, p. 289, citing (note 197, p. 379) ''Miyazawa Kenji'' 1968, p. 311–314.</ref>
Miyazawa's works were influenced by contemporary trends of ] and the ] literature movement but, above all, were influenced by his devotion to the ] in particular.


According to Sibayama Zyun'iti, he started learning ] in 1926, but never reached a high level in the language.<ref name="mima_sizy">Miyamoto Masao and Sibayama Zyun'iti: </ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://enjoyiwate.com/?p=10884 | title=Kenji Miyazawa Ihatovkan Exhibition "Kenji Miyazawa and Esperanto Exhibition" }}</ref> He also studied English and ].{{citation needed|date=May 2015}} At some point he translated some of his poems into Esperanto;<ref name="dapo" /> the translated pieces were published in 1953, long after his death.<ref name="mima_sizy" /> According to ], Kenji was made interested in Esperanto by the Finnish scientist and Esperantist ], who was working as ] for Finland in Japan.<ref name="lt">Jouko Lindstedt: (part 2)</ref>
==Death==


<!-- https://apjjf.org/2013/11/44/Roger-Pulvers/4021/article.html 'He studied English, German and Esperanto, particularly Esperanto, in which he wrote poetry' – but maybe this is based on wp? ~a user, October 2022.
Miyazawa struggled with ] for many years and was often incapacitated for months at a time. He died in 1933 of ].


The following text isn't half bad, but is definitely out of place where it is now. Any ideas on what to do with it? ~Hijiri88, May 2015. -->Kenji's writings from this period show sensitivity for the land and for the people who work in it. He was a prolific writer of children's stories, many of which appear superficially light or humorous but include messages intended for the moral education of the reader. He wrote some works in prose and some stage plays for his students and left behind a large amount of '']'' and ], most of which was discovered and published posthumously. His poetry, which has been translated into numerous languages, has a considerable following to this day. A number of his children's works have been made into animated movies, ], in Japan.{{citation needed|date=October 2022}}
In February 1934, some time after his memorial service, his literary friends held an event where they organized his unpublished manuscripts. These were slowly published over the following decade, and his fame increased rapidly in the postwar period.


He showed little interest in romantic love or sex, both in his private life and in his literary work.<ref name="pulvers 9–28">Pulvers 2007, pp. 9–28. "Kenji, it must be remembered, was a man who displayed no particular interest in romantic love or sex." Keene, though, states "he sometimes wandered all night in the wood in order in order to subdue the waves of sexual desire " (Keene 1999, p. 288).</ref><!-- Why is there a 17-word quotation but cited to pages 9-28!? What page is THIS quotation on? I would assume "9–28" is the entire length of the "Introduction", but if so it's inappropriate to be citing this huge page range for a single quote. ~Hijiri88, May 2015. --> Kenji's close friend {{Nihongo|Tokuya Seki|関登久也|Seki Tokuya}} wrote that he died a virgin.<ref name="keene n193">Keene 1999, p. 288, citing (note 193, p. 379) Seki 1971, pp. 130–132.</ref>
==Legacy==


===Illness and death===
The Miyazawa Kenji Museum was opened in 1982 in his native Hanamaki city, in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of his death. It displays the few manuscripts and artifacts from Miyazawa's life that escaped the destruction of Hanamaki by American bombers in ].
Kenji fell ill in summer 1928, and by the end of that year this had developed into acute ].<ref name="keene 289-90">Keene 1999, pp. 289–290.</ref> He once wept on learning that he had been tricked into eating carp liver.<ref name="keene n198">Keene 1999, p. 290, citing (note 198, p. 379) Kushida, "Shijin to Shōzō" in ''Miyazawa Kenji'' 1968, p. 393.</ref> He struggled with ] for many years and was often incapacitated for months at a time.{{citation needed|date=May 2015}} His health improved nonetheless sufficiently for him to take on consultancy work with a rock-crushing company in 1931.<ref name="kilpatrick 11-25"/> The respite was brief; by September of that year, on a visit to Tokyo, he caught pneumonia and had to return to his hometown.<ref name="kilpatrick 11-25"/> In the autumn of 1933, his health seemed to have improved enough for him to watch a local ] procession from his doorway; a group of local farmers approached him and engaged him in conversation about fertilizer for about an hour.<ref name="keene 291">Keene 1999, p. 291.</ref> He died the following day, having been exhausted by the length of his discussion with the farmers.<ref name="keene 291"/> On his deathbed he asked his father to print 1,000 copies of the Lotus Sutra for distribution. His family initially had him buried in the family temple {{Nihongo|]|安浄寺||exra=a ] temple}}, but when they converted to ] in 1951, he was moved to the Nichiren temple {{nihongo|]|身照寺}}.<ref name=hanamakikanko1>{{cite web |url=http://www.kanko-hanamaki.ne.jp/marugoto/detail.php?p=121 |title=Marugoto Jiten: Shinshōji |date=2011 |website=Ihatovo Hanamaki |publisher=Hanamaki Tourism & Convention Bureau |access-date=March 1, 2015}}</ref> After his death, he became known in his district as Kenji-] (賢治菩薩).<ref name="kilpatrick 11-25"/>


Miyazawa left his manuscripts to his younger brother Seiroku, who kept them through the ] and eventually had them published.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Nagai |first1=Kaori |title=Foreeord in: "Night Train to the Starts and other stories" by Kenji Miyazawa |date=2022 |publisher=Vintage Classics |isbn=9781784877767 |page=xii}}</ref>
In 1996, to mark the 100th anniversary of Miyazawa's birth, the ] ''Ihatov Gensou: Kenji no Haru'' (''Ihatov Fantasy: Kenji's Spring''; North American title: '']'') was released as a depiction of Miyazawa's life. As in the ''Night on the Galactic Railroad'' anime, the main characters are depicted as cats.


==Early writings<!--I’m not actually sure where to cut this section off. I was considering his journey to Tokyo in January 1921, since that was when he first started producing the majority of his famous works, but… ~Hijiri88, May 2015. -->==
He loved his native province, and ''Ihatov'' (or ''Ihatovo''), the name of the fictional location that appeared in his works, was constructed from the name ''Iwate'' (''Ihate'' in the older spelling). Among the variation of names, there is ''Ihatovo'', and the addition of final ''o'' is supposed to be the noun ending of ], whose idea of common international language interested him. This interest is paid tribute to in the 1985 ] adaptation of '']'' (''Night on the Galactic Railroad''), in which all signs in Giovanni and Campanella's world are written in Esperanto, as well as the written language of the "cats".
Kenji started writing poetry as a schoolboy, and composed over a thousand '']''<ref name="keene 284"/> beginning at roughly age 15,<ref name=kinenkai1/> in January 1911<!-- I suspect that Ueda is correct here, but if so we should probably cut the Kinenkai reference and "roughly age 15" entirely, since "January 1911" is already more specific. ~Hijiri88, May 2015. -->, a few weeks after the publication of Takuboku's "A Handful of Sand".<ref>Ueda Makoto p.217.</ref> He favoured this form until the age of 24. Keene said of these early poems that they "were crude in execution, they already prefigure the fantasy and intensity of emotion that would later be revealed in his mature work".<ref name="keene 284"/>


Kenji was removed physically from the poetry circles of his day.<ref name="keene 283">Keene 1999, p. 283.</ref> He was an avid reader of modern Japanese poets such as ] and ], and their influence can be traced on his poetry, but his life among farmers has been said to have influenced his poetry more than these literary interests.<ref name="keene 283-4">Keene 1999, pp. 283–284.</ref> When he first started writing modern poetry, he was influenced by Kitahara, as well as his fellow Iwatean ]<ref name="keene 284"/>
==Major works==


Kenji's works were influenced by contemporary trends of ] and the ] movement.{{citation needed|date=May 2015}} His readings in Buddhist literature, particularly the ], to which he became devoted, also came to have a strong influence on his writings.{{citation needed|date=May 2015}}
In addition to the works mentioned above, Miyazawa's major works also include:
* '']'' (銀河鉄道の夜, ''Gingatetsudō no Yoru'')
* '']'' (グスコーブドリの伝記, ''Guskō Budori no Denki'')
* ''{{link-interwiki|en=Kaze no Matasaburo|en_text=Matasaburo of the Wind|lang=ja|lang_title=風の又三郎}}'' (風の又三郎, ''Kaze no Matasaburō'')
* '']'' (セロ弾きのゴーシュ, ''Cello Hiki no Goshu'')
* '']'' (種山ヶ原の夜, ''Taneyamagahara no Yoru'')
* '']'' (ビジテリアン大祭, ''Vegetarian Taisai'')
* '']'' (龍と詩人, ''Ryū to shijin'')


In 1919, his sister prepared a collection of 662 of his ''tanka'' for publication.<ref name="keene 285"/> Kenji edited a volume of extracts from ]’s writings, the year before he join the Kokuchūkai (see ]).<ref name="keene 285"/><!-- Keene just says "a Nichiren Buddhist society", but this is almost certainly a reference to his joining the Kokuchūkai in 1920. The previous sentence begins "In 1919 his sister compiled a collection of 662 of his tanka for publication. Miyazawa himself edited a volume of extracts from the writings of Nichiren, and in the following year joined a Nichiren Buddhist society." I’m not sure if it qualifies as OR to assume that he edited the volume in 1919 the same as his sister, but unless we assume that 1919 is the year he was talking about, "the following year" is meaningless. ~Hijiri88, May 2015. -->
and the poem defining his personal ideal:

* '']'' ("Not defeated by the rain")
He largely<!-- Keene is quoted as stating that he kept writing the odd tanka his whole life, so "he abandoned tanka" is not ideal. ~Hijiri88, May 2015. --> abandoned tanka by 1921, and turned his hand instead to the composition of free verse, involving an extension of the conventions governing tanka verse forms.<ref>Ueda pp.218–219</ref> He is said also to have written three thousand pages a month worth of children's stories during this period,<ref name="keene 285"/> thanks to the advice of a priest in the Nichiren order, Takachiyo Chiyō.<ref name="kilpatrick 11-25"/> At the end of the year he managed to sell one of these stories for five yen, which was the only payment he received for his writings during his own lifetime.<ref name="keene 285"/>

==Later poetry==
]
]
The "charms of Kenji's poetry", critic Makota Ueda writes, include "his high idealism, his intensely ethical life, his unique cosmic vision, his agrarianism, his religious faith, and his rich and colorful vocabulary." Ultimately, Ueda writes, "they are all based in a dedicated effort to unify the heterogeneous elements of modern life into a single, coherent whole."<ref>Ueda 184</ref>

It was in 1922 that Kenji began composing the poetry that would make up his first collection, '']''.<ref name="keene 285"/> The day his sister died, November 27, 1922, he composed three long poems commemorating her, which Keene states to be among the best of his work.<ref name="keene 285"/> Keene also remarks that the speed at which Kenji composed these poems was characteristic of the poet, as a few months prior he had composed three long poems, one more than 900 lines long, in three days.<ref name="keene 285-6">Keene 1999, pp. 285–286.</ref> The first of these poems on the death of his sister was {{nihongo|]|永訣の朝||extra="The Morning of Eternal Parting"}}, which was the longest.<ref name="keene 286">Keene 1999, p. 286.</ref> Keene calls it the most affecting of the three.<ref name="keene 286"/> It is written in the form of a "dialogue" between Kenji and Toshi (or Toshiko, as he often calls her<ref name="keene 286"/>).<!-- This is not directly stated in Keene, and so essentially constitutes "OR" based on my reading of Keene's translation. A source directly supporting it shouldn't be hard to find, though. ~Hijiri88, May 2015. --> Several lines uttered by his sister are written in a regional dialect so unlike ] that Kenji provided translations at the end of the poem.<ref name="keene 287">Keene 1999, p. 287.</ref> The poem lacks any kind of regular meter, but draws its appeal from the raw emotion it expresses; Keene suggests that Kenji learned this poetic technique from ].<ref name="keene 287"/>

Kenji could write a huge volume of poetry in a short time, based mostly on impulse, seemingly with no preconceived plan of how long the poem would be and without considering future revisions.<ref name="keene 285-6"/>

] has speculated that his love of music affected the poetry he was writing in 1922, as this was when he started collecting records of western music, particularly ] and ].<ref name="keene 285"/> Much of his poetic tone derives from ] involving music becoming color, especially after the period 1921 and 1926 when he started listening to music of ], ] and ].<ref name=kodansha/>

He was associated with the poetry magazine {{nihongo|'']''|歴程}}.<ref name="keene 356">Keene 1999, p. 356 (also note 347, p. 384).</ref><ref name=endo>{{cite web |url=https://www.wako.ac.jp/blog/index_univ/2091.html |title=Nomura Kiwao-sensei ga "Fujimura Kinen Rekitei Shō" o jushō! |last1=Endō |first1=Tomoyuki |date=October 10, 2012 |website=Wako University Blog |publisher=] |access-date=May 1, 2015}}</ref><!-- Staff blog by university professor (https://www.wako.ac.jp/faculty-postgraduate/hyogen/sogo/introduction.html#t-endou). Not sure if it's necessary with the Keene source as well, but it can't hurt. ~Hijiri88, May 2015. -->

Only the first part in four of ''Haru to Shura'' was published during Kenji's lifetime.<ref name="keene 291"/> It appeared in an edition of one thousand copies, but only one hundred sold.<ref name="keene 291"/> For most of his literary career his poems saw publication only in local papers and magazines, but by the time of his death major literary publications had been made aware of him; he died just as his fame was beginning to spread.<ref name="keene 291"/>

With the exception of a few poems in ] written near the end of his life, virtually all Myazawa'a modern poetry was in colloquial Japanese, occasionally even in dialect.<ref name="keene 284"/> The poems included in ''Haru to Shura'' include a liberal sprinkling of scientific vocabulary, Sanskrit phrases, Sino-Japanese compounds and even some Esperanto words.<ref name=kodansha/> After starting out with traditional ''tanka'', he developed a preference for long, free verse, but continued to occasionally compose ''tanka'' even as late as 1921.<ref name="keene 284"/>

Kenji wrote his most famous poem, "]", in his notebook on November 3, 1931.<ref name="keene 290">Keene 1999, p. 290.</ref> Keene was dismissive of the poetic value of the poem, stating that it is "by no means one of Miyazawa's best poems" and that it is "ironic that should be the one poem for which he is universally known", but that the image of a sickly and dying Kenji writing such a poem of resolute self-encouragement is striking.<ref name="keene 290"/><!-- This is something I definitely don't agree with Keene on, and we'll need to find something else to balance out his opinion of it. ~Hijiri88, May 2015. -->

==Later fiction==
Kenji wrote rapidly and tirelessly.<ref name=kodansha/> He wrote a great number of children's stories, many of them intended to assist in moral education.<ref name=kodansha/>

His best-known stories include {{nihongo|'']''|銀河鉄道の夜|Ginga Tetsudō no Yoru}}, {{nihongo|'']''|グスコーブドリの伝記|Gusukō Budori no Denki}}, {{nihongo|{{ill|Kaze no Matasaburō|ja|風の又三郎|lt=''Matasaburō of the Wind''}}|風の又三郎|Kaze no Matasaburō}}, {{nihongo|'']''|セロ弾きのゴーシュ|Sero Hiki no Gōshu}}, {{nihongo|'']''|種山ヶ原の夜|Taneyamagahara no Yoru}}, {{nihongo|'']''|ビジテリアン大祭|Bijiterian Taisai}}, and {{nihongo|'']''|龍と詩人|Ryū to Shijin}}

==Other writings==
In 1919, Kenji edited a volume of extracts from the writings of Nichiren,<ref name="keene 285"/> and in December 1925<ref name="nabeshima 34">Nabeshima (ed.) 2005, p. 34.</ref> a {{Nihongo|solicitation to build a Nichiren temple |法華堂建立勧進文|Hokke-dō konryū kanjin-bun}} in the '']'' under a pseudonym.<ref name="nabeshima 34"/>

==Religious beliefs==
Kenji was born into a family of ], but in 1915 converted to ] upon reading the ] and being captivated by it.<ref name="keene 284"/> His conversion created a rift with his relatives, but he nevertheless became active in trying to spread the faith of the Lotus Sutra, walking the streets crying '']''.<ref name="keene 285"/> In January 1921 he made several unsuccessful attempts to convert his family to Nichiren Buddhism.<ref name="keene 285"/>

From January to September 1921, he lived in Tokyo working as a street proselytizer for the ], a Buddhist-] organization<ref name=Stone>Stone 2003, pp. 197–198.</ref> that had initially turned down his service.<ref name="keene 285"/> The general consensus among modern Kenji scholars is that he became estranged from the group and rejected their nationalist agenda,<ref name=Stone2>Stone 2003, p. 198.</ref> but a few scholars such as ]<!-- Not the video game designer. This one also appears to be notable, although establishing this is somewhat difficult because his name, 上田 哲, is written the same way as Tetsu Ueda, the politician. -->, ] and ] argue otherwise.<ref name="Holt 312">Holt, 2014, pp. 312–314.</ref> The Kokuchūkai's official website continues to claim him as a member, also claiming that the influence of ] (the group's religio-political philosophy) can be seen in Kenji's later works such as ''Ame ni mo Makezu'', while acknowledging that others have expressed the view that Kenji became estranged from the group after returning to Hanamaki.<ref name="kokuchukai">{{cite web |url=http://www.kokuchukai.or.jp/about/hitobito/miyazawakenji.html |title=Tanaka Chigaku-sensei no Eikyō o Uketa Hitobito: Miyazawa Kenji |website=Kokuchūkai official website |publisher=] |access-date=March 1, 2015}}</ref>

Kenji remained a devotee of the Lotus Sutra until his death, and continued attempting to convert those around him.{{citation needed|date=May 2015}}<!-- This is almost certainly accurate, but I combed over Keene 284-5 again and couldn't find the statement that he "continued attempting to convert those around him until his death". I apologize if I read something into Keene that wasn't there ~Hijiri88, May 2015. --> He made a deathbed request to his father to print one thousand copies of the sutra in Japanese translation and distribute them to friends and associates.<ref name="keene 284"/><ref name="keene 291"/>

Kenji incorporated a relatively large amount of Buddhist vocabulary in his poems and children's stories.<ref name="keene 284"/> He drew inspiration from mystic visions in which he saw the bodhisattva ], the Buddha himself<!-- This is Kodansha's word, but does it mean Shaka Nyorai? Probably not Amida. I can't tell; it's possible the staff writer or translator was not very familiar with Buddhism. ~Hijiri88, May 2015. --> and fierce demons.<ref name=kodansha/>

In 1925 Kenji pseudonymously published a {{Nihongo|solicitation to build a Nichiren temple |法華堂建立勧進文|Hokke-dō konryū kanjin-bun}} in Hanamaki,<ref name=hanamakikanko1/><ref name="nabeshima 34"/><ref name=aruku1>{{cite web |url= http://c-faculty.chuo-u.ac.jp/~houki/kenji/aruku/hanamaki.htm |title=Hanamaki o aruku |last1=Rasu Chijin Kyōkai |website=Chuo University faculty website |publisher=] |access-date=May 1, 2015 |quote=賢治は熱心な法華経信者でこの寺の建立のため「法華堂建立勧進文」まで書いているが、宮澤家が真宗だったため、死後真宗の寺に葬られていた。昭和二十六年、賢治の遺志を請けて、宮澤家が改宗し、日蓮宗のこの寺に葬られることになった。宮澤家の骨堂の左側にあるのが賢治供養塔である。}}</ref> which led to the construction of the present Shinshōji,<ref name=hanamakikanko1/> but on his death his family, who were followers of Pure Land Buddhism, had him interred at a Pure Land temple.<ref name=aruku1/> His family converted to Nichiren Buddhism in 1951<ref name=hanamakikanko1/><ref name=aruku1/> and moved his grave to Shinshōji,<ref name=aruku1/> where it is located today.<ref name=hanamakikanko1/><ref name=aruku1/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://e-tera.jp/oterasan/iwate/19-hanamaki/09-sinshouji.html |title=Minobu-betsuin Shinshōji |date=2010 |website=Tōhoku Jiin no Sōgō Jōhō Saito: E-Tera |publisher=Coyo Photo Office Corporation |access-date=March 1, 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150129151237/http://e-tera.jp/oterasan/iwate/19-hanamaki/09-sinshouji.html |archive-date=January 29, 2015 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.iwatehanamaki.net/sp/tour/course.php?eid=00004 |title=Miyazawa Kenji: Yukari no Chi o Tazunete |website=Iwate Hanamaki Travel Agency website |publisher=Iwate Hanamaki Travel Agency |access-date=March 1, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402111516/http://www.iwatehanamaki.net/sp/tour/course.php?eid=00004 |archive-date=April 2, 2015 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

] suggests that while explicitly Buddhist themes are rare in his writings, he incorporated a relatively large amount of Buddhist vocabulary in his poems and children's stories, and has been noted as taking a far greater interest in Buddhism than other Japanese poets of the twentieth century.<ref name="keene 284"/> Keene also contrasted Kenji's piety to the "relative indifference to Buddhism" on the part of most modern Japanese poets.<ref name="keene 284"/>

== Themes ==
He loved his native province, and the mythical landscape of his fiction, known by the generic neologism, coined in a poem in 1923, as ''Īhatōbu'' (''Ihatov'') is often thought to allude to ''Iwate'' (''Ihate'' in the older spelling). Several theories exist as to the possible derivations of this fantastic toponym: one theory breaks it down into a composite of ''I'' for 'Iwate'; ''hāto'' (English 'heart') and ''obu'' (English 'of'), yielding 'the heart or core of Iwate'. Others cite Esperanto and German forms as keys to the word's structure, and derive meanings varying from 'I don't know where' to 'Paradise'.<ref>Kilpatrick p.192 </ref> Among the variation of names, there is ''Ihatovo'', and the addition of final ''o'' is supposed to be the noun ending of ], whose idea of common international language interested him.

==Reception==
Kenji's poetry managed to attract some attention during his lifetime. According to Hiroaki Sato, ''Haru to Shura'', which appeared in April 1924, "electrified several of the poets who read it." These included the first reviewer, ] ], who wrote that he chose the book for his summer reading in the Japan Alps, and ] {{nihongo|]|草野心平|Kusano Shinpei}}, who called the book shocking and inspirational, and ], who wrote in a review for a poetry magazine that it "astonished the most" out of all the books of poems he had received.<ref>Sato (2007), 2.</ref> However, such occasional murmurs of interest were a far cry from the chorus of praise later directed toward his poetry.<!-- I removed the paragraph of 注文の多い店 and its poor reception, since it is not technically accurate to refer to it as his only published collection of stories in this context (it was the only one published while he was alive); it's lukewarm reception is amply covered in the biography section up above. ~Hijiri88, May 2015. -->

In February 1934, some time after his memorial service, his literary friends held an event where they organized his unpublished manuscripts.{{citation needed|date=May 2015}} These were slowly published over the following decade, and his fame increased rapidly in the postwar period.{{citation needed|date=May 2015}}

The poet ] is credited as introducing Kenji's poetry to English readers. "In the 1960s, Snyder, then living in Kyoto and pursuing Buddhism, was offered a grant to translate Japanese literature. He sought ]’s opinion, and Watson, a scholar of Chinese classics trained at the University of Kyoto, recommended Kenji." Some years earlier Jane Imamura at the Buddhist Study Center in Berkeley had shown him a Kenji translation which had impressed him.<ref>Sato (2007), 1.</ref> Snyder's translations of eighteen poems by Kenji appeared in his collection, ''The Back Country'' (1967).<ref>Snyder 1967, pp. 115–128.</ref>

The Miyazawa Kenji Museum was opened in 1982 in his native Hanamaki, in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of his death.{{citation needed|date=May 2015}} It displays the few manuscripts and artifacts from Kenji's life that escaped the destruction of Hanamaki by American bombers in ].{{citation needed|date=May 2015}}<!-- I find this frankly quite hard to believe, given that a large amount of what made Kenji famous was never published until after WW2. ~Hijiri88, May 2015. -->

In 1982, ] finished an animated feature film adaptation of Miyazawa's ],<ref>CINEMASIE.COM, </ref> with ] and ] re-releasing the film as a double-disc commemoration of Miyazawa's 110th birthday along with an English-subtitle version.<ref>DVD talk, {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061019110334/http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=23007 |date=2006-10-19 }}</ref><ref>Ghibli World, {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130302053143/http://www.ghibliworld.com/newsarchive.html |date=2013-03-02 }}</ref>

Manga artist ] has adapted many of Miyazawa's stories as manga since the 1980s, often using anthropomorphic cats as protagonists. The 1985 ] adaptation of '']'' (''Night on the Galactic Railroad''), in which all signs in Giovanni and Campanella's world are written in Esperanto, is based on Masumura's manga. In 1996, to mark the 100th anniversary of Kenji's birth, the ] '' Īhatōbu Gensō: Kenji no Haru'' (''Ihatov Fantasy: Kenji's Spring''; North American title: '']'') was released as a depiction of Kenji's life.<ref name="imdb">{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0223503/ |title=Ihatobu Genso: Kenji no Haru (TV Movie 1996)|website=Internet Movie Database |access-date=January 9, 2020}}</ref> As in the ''Night on the Galactic Railroad'' anime, the main characters are depicted as cats.

The Japanese culture and lifestyle television show '']'' aired on ] featured a full episode on Miyazawa Kenji in 2008.

The ] train {{nihongo|'']''|SL銀河|Esueru Ginga}} was restored with inspiration from and named in honor of his work in 2013.<ref name="mainichi20131106">{{cite web|url= http://mainichi.jp/select/news/20131107k0000m040010000c.html|script-title= ja:JR東:復元中のC58の列車名「SL銀河」に…来春運行|trans-title= JR East to name C58 train currently being restored "SL Ginga" - entering service next spring|date= 6 November 2013|work= Mainichi.jp|publisher= The Mainichi Newspapers|location= Japan|language= Japanese|archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20131214040139/http://mainichi.jp/select/news/20131107k0000m040010000c.html|archivedate= 14 December 2013|accessdate= 6 October 2021|url-status= dead|df= dmy-all}}</ref><!-- For an Iwate-kenmin like myself this is more BLUE material, but I will look around for a source that states this directly. ~Hijiri88, May 2015. --><!-- Surprised you didn't find that source! ~VariousDeliciousCheeses, October 2021 -->

The 2015 anime ] and its ] features a self-styled hero who calls himself Kenji Miyazawa and has a habit of quoting his poetry when arriving on scene. When other characters wonder who he is after his sudden initial appearance, they point out that he cannot be the "poet who wrote books for kids" because he died in 1933.<ref>{{Cite web|title="Fight, Kenji Miyazawa!" Trophy - Punchline (EU) (PS4)|url=https://www.playstationtrophies.org/game/punchline-eu-ps4/trophies/|access-date=2021-05-23|website=PlayStationTrophies.org|date=25 September 2018 |language=en}}</ref>


==See also== ==See also==
{{Portal|Biography|Japan}} {{Portal|Biography|Japan|Children's literature}}
* '']''
* ] * ]
* ]


==Notes== ==Notes==
{{reflist}} {{notelist}}


==References== ==Reference list==
{{reflist|3}}

==Bibliography==

===Works in English translation===
* Miyazawa, Kenji. ''The Milky Way Railroad''. Translated by Joseph Sigrist and D. M. Stroud. Stone Bridge Press (1996). {{ISBN|1-880656-26-4}}
* Miyazawa Kenji. ''Night of the Milky Way Railroad''. M.E. Sharpe (1991). {{ISBN|0-87332-820-5}}
* Miyazawa Kenji. ''The Restaurant of Many Orders''. RIC Publications (2006). {{ISBN|1-74126-019-1}}
* Miyazawa Kenji. ''Miyazawa Kenji Selections''. University of California Press (2007). {{ISBN|0-520-24779-5}}
* Miyazawa Kenji. ''Winds from Afar''. Kodansha (1992).{{ISBN|087011171X}}
* Miyazawa Kenji. ''The Dragon and the Poet''. translated by Massimo Cimarelli, Volume Edizioni (2013), ebook. {{ISBN|9788897747161}}
* Miyazawa Kenji. ''The Dragon and the Poet – illustrated version''. Translated by Massimo Cimarelli. Illustrated by Francesca Eleuteri. Volume Edizioni (2013), ebook. {{ISBN|9788897747185}}
* Miyazawa Kenji. ''Once and Forever: The Tales of Kenji Miyazawa''. Translated by John Bester. Kodansha International (1994). {{ISBN|4-7700-1780-4}}
* Miyazawa Kenji. ''Night Train to the Stars and other stories''. Translated by John Bester, introduction by Kaori Nagai. Vintage Classics (2022). {{ISBN|9781784877767}}
* Snyder, Gary. ''The Back Country''. New York: New Directions, 1967.

===Adaptations===
* {{nihongo|'']''|銀河鉄道の夜|Ginga Tetsudō no Yoru}}
* {{nihongo|'']''|グスコーブドリの伝記|Gusukō Budori no Denki}}
* {{nihongo|'']''|風の又三郎|Kaze no Matasaburō|extra=]}}
* {{nihongo|'']''|セロ弾きのゴーシュ|Sero Hiki no Gōshu}}
* {{nihongo|'']''|種山ヶ原の夜|Taneyamagahara no Yoru}}

===Critical studies===
* Cimarelli, Massimo. ''Miyazawa Kenji: A Short Biography'', Volume Edizioni (2013), ebook. ASIN B00E0TE83W.
* Colligan-Taylor, Karen. ''The Emergence of Environmental Literature in Japan Environment'', Garland 1990 pp.&nbsp;34ff.
* Curley, Melissa Anne-Marie. "Fruit, Fossils, Footprints: Cathecting Utopia in the Work of Miyazawa Kenji", in Daniel Boscaljon (ed.), , James Clarke & Co./ /Lutterworth Press, 2015. 96–118.
* Hara Shirō. ''Miyazawa Kenji Goi Jiten = Glossarial Dictionary of Miyazawa Kenji''. Tokyo: Tokyo Shoseki, 1989. * Hara Shirō. ''Miyazawa Kenji Goi Jiten = Glossarial Dictionary of Miyazawa Kenji''. Tokyo: Tokyo Shoseki, 1989.
* Holt, Jon. 2014. , '']'' 41/2: 305–345.
* Massimo Cimarelli. ''Miyazawa Kenji - a short biography'', Volume Edizioni (2013), ebook. ASIN B00E0TE83W.
* {{cite book |last=Keene |first=Donald |date=1999 |title=Dawn to the West: Japanese Literature of the Modern Era -- Poetry, Drama, Criticism |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nncLAQAAMAAJ |location=New York |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=9780231114394 }} (First Edition 1984; 1999 Columbia University Press paperback reprint cited in text)<!-- For page number purposes, the 1999 CUP reprint is probably the best, since I'm pretty sure it's the most widely used edition of the book. ~Hijiri88, May 2015. -->
* Miyazawa, Kenji. The Milky Way Railroad. translated by Joseph Sigrist and D. M. Stroud. Stone Bridge Press (1996). ISBN 1-880656-26-4
*Kikuchi, Yūko (菊地有子), , RoutledgeCurzon 2004 pp.&nbsp;36ff.
* Miyazawa Kenji. ''Night of the Milky Way Railroad''. M.E. Sharpe (1991). ISBN 0-87332-820-5
* Kilpatrick, Helen , BRILL, 2014.
* Miyazawa Kenji. ''The Restaurant of Many Orders''. RIC Publications (2006). ISBN 1-74126-019-1
* Inoue, Kota "Wolf Forest, Basket Forest and Thief Forest", in Mason, Michele and Lee, Helen (eds.), , Stanford University Press, 2012 pp.&nbsp;181–207,
* Miyazawa Kenji. ''Miyazawa Kenji Selections''. University of California Press (2007). ISBN 0-520-24779-5
* Long, Hoyt , Stanford University Press, 2011 <!--Hijiri, good for the influence of ], ], ], ], ] etc. ~~from Nishidani-->
* Miyazawa Kenji. ''Winds from Afar''. Kodansha (1992).ISBN 087011171X
*Mitsutani, Margaret, "The Regional as the Center: The Poetry of Miyazawa Kenji", in Klaus Martens, Paul Duncan Morris, Arlette Warken (eds.) , Königshausen & Neumann, 2003 pp.&nbsp;66–72.
* Miyazawa Kenji. ''The dragon and the poet''. translated by Massimo Cimarelli, Volume Edizioni (2013), ebook. ISBN 9788897747161
* {{cite journal |last1=Miyakubo |first1=Hitomi |last2=Matsukawa |first2=Toshihiro |date=May 7, 2013 |title=Development of teaching materials for poetry: With close attention to Matsu no Hari by Miyazawa Kenji |url=http://near.nara-edu.ac.jp/bitstream/10105/9815/1/NUE62_1_167-178.pdf |journal=Bulletin of Nara University of Education |publisher=] |volume=62 |issue=1 |access-date=May 11, 2015 |archive-date=March 4, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304122955/http://near.nara-edu.ac.jp/bitstream/10105/9815/1/NUE62_1_167-178.pdf |url-status=dead }}
* Miyazawa Kenji. ''The dragon and the poet - illustrated version''. translated by Massimo Cimarelli, illustrated by Francesca Eleuteri, Volume Edizioni (2013), ebook. ISBN 9788897747185
* ''Miyazawa Kenji'' 1968. ''Nihon no Shiika'' series. Chūō Kōron Sha.
* Miyazawa Kenji. ''Once and Forever: The Tales of Kenji Miyazawa''. translated by John Bester Kodansha International (1994). ISBN 4-7700-1780-4
* {{cite web |url=http://buddhism-orc.ryukoku.ac.jp/old/atlas/06/06_padma_exhibition.pdf |title=Compassion for All Beings: The Realm of Kenji Miyazawa |editor-last=Nabeshima |editor-first=Naoki |date=November 14, 2005 |website=Ryukoku University official website |publisher=] Open Research Center for Humanities, Science, and Religion Open Research Center for Humanities, Science, and Religion |access-date=May 11, 2015 |archive-date=March 6, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306014839/http://buddhism-orc.ryukoku.ac.jp/old/atlas/06/06_padma_exhibition.pdf |url-status=dead }}
* Ryumonji Bunzō. ''"Ame ni mo makezu" no konpon shisō: Miyazawa Kenji no Hokekyō Nichirenshugi'' (The foundational thought of "Ame ni mo makezu": Miyazawa Kenji's ''Lotus Sutra'' Nichirenism). Tokyo: Daizō Shuppan, 1991. ISBN 4-8043-2510-7
* {{cite book |last=Nakamura |first=Minoru |date=1972 |title=Miyazawa Kenji |location=Tokyo |publisher=Chikuma Shobō |isbn=978-4480011916 }}
*Strong, Sarah. “The Reader’s Guide” In Miyazawa Kenji, ''The Night of the Milky Way Railway''. Translated by Sarah Strong. New York: 1991.
*Napier, Susan, , Routledge 1996 pp.&nbsp;141–178
*Strong, Sarah. “The Poetry of Miyazawa Kenji.” Thesis (Ph.D.), The University of Chicago, 1984.
* {{cite book |last=Pulvers |first=Roger |editor-last=Miyazawa |editor-first=Kenji |others=Trans. Roger Pulvers |title=Strong in the Rain: Selected Poems |publisher=Bloodaxe Books |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-85224-781-2 }}
* Sato, Hiroaki. "Introduction". In Miyazawa Kenji. ''Miyazawa Kenji Selections''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007. pp.&nbsp;1–58. {{ISBN|0-520-24779-5}}.
* {{cite book |last=Seki |first=Tokuya |title=Kenji Zuimon |publisher=] |year=1971}}
* Stone, Jacqueline. 2003. . IN: Steven Heine; Charles S. Prebish (ed.) ''Buddhism in the Modern World''. New York: Oxford University Press. 2003. {{ISBN|0195146972}}. pp 193–219.
* Strong, Sarah. "The Reader's Guide" In Miyazawa Kenji, ''The Night of the Milky Way Railway''. Translated by Sarah Strong. New York: 1991.
* Strong, Sarah. "The Poetry of Miyazawa Kenji". Thesis (Ph.D.), The University of Chicago, 1984.
* Ueda, Makoto, ''Modern Japanese Poets and the Nature of Literature''. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1983.


== External links == == External links ==
{{Commons category}}
* at ]
{{wikisource author}}
*{{IMDb title|id=0089206|title=Night on the Galactic Railroad (1986) }}
{{Wikiquote}}
*{{IMDb title|id=0223503|title=Spring and Chaos (2001) }}: an animated version of Kenji Miyazawa's life
* * at ]
* *
* {{en icon}} *
* at Japanese Classical Literature at Bedtime
*
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Kenji Miyazawa}}
* at Japanese Classical Literature at Bedtime
* {{Librivox author |id=2933}}

{{Authority control}}


{{Authority control|VIAF=68968087}}
{{Persondata
| NAME = Miyazawa, Kenji
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES =
| SHORT DESCRIPTION = Writer, Teacher
| DATE OF BIRTH = August 27, 1896
| PLACE OF BIRTH = ], ]
| DATE OF DEATH = September 21, 1933
| PLACE OF DEATH = ], ]
}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Miyazawa, Kenji}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Miyazawa, Kenji}}
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Latest revision as of 03:40, 25 November 2024

Japanese writer (1896–1933)
Kenji Miyazawa
Kenji MiyazawaKenji Miyazawa
Native name宮沢 賢治
Born(1896-08-27)August 27, 1896
Hanamaki, Iwate, Japan
DiedSeptember 21, 1933(1933-09-21) (aged 37)
Hanamaki, Iwate, Japan
OccupationWriter, poet, teacher, geologist
PeriodTaishō and early Shōwa periods
GenreChildren'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.

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.

He died of pneumonia in 1933. Almost totally unknown as a poet in his lifetime, Miyazawa's work gained its reputation posthumously, and enjoyed a boom by the mid-1990s on his centenary. 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.

Biography

Miyazawa Kenji and the editorial staff of the student agricultural magazine "Azalea", 1917.

Miyazawa was born in the town of Hanamaki, Iwate, the eldest son of a wealthy pawnbroking couple, Masajirō and his wife Ichi. The family were also pious followers of the Pure Land Sect, as were generally the farmers in that district. His father, from 1898 onwards, organized regular meetings in the district where monks and Buddhist thinkers gave lectures and Miyazawa, together with his younger sister, took part in these meetings from an early age. The area was an impoverished rice-growing region, and he grew to be troubled by his family's interest in money-making and social status. Miyazawa was a keen student of natural history from an early age, and also developed an interest as a teenager in poetry, coming under the influence of a local poet, Takuboku Ishikawa. After graduating from middle school, he helped out in his father's pawnshop. By 1918, he was writing in the tanka genre, and had already composed two tales for children. In high school he converted to the Hokke sect after reading the Lotus Sutra, a move which was to bring him into conflict with his father. In 1918, he graduated from Morioka Agriculture and Forestry College (盛岡高等農林学校, Morioka Kōtō Nōrin Gakkō, now the Faculty of Agriculture at Iwate University). He embraced vegetarianism in the same year. A bright student, he was then given a position as a special research student in geology, developing an interest in soil science and in fertilizers. Later in 1918, he and his mother went to Tokyo to look after his younger sister Toshi (宮澤トシ, Miyazawa Toshi), who had fallen ill while studying in Japan Women's University He returned home after his sister had recovered early the following year.

As a result of differences with his father over religion, his repugnance for commerce, and the family pawnshop business in particular (he yielded his inheritance to his younger brother Seiroku), he left Hanamaki for Tokyo in January 1921. There, he joined Tanaka Chigaku's Kokuchūkai, and spent several months in dire poverty preaching Nichiren Buddhism in the streets. After eight months in Tokyo, he took once more to writing children's stories, this time prolifically, under the influence of another Nichiren priest, Takachiyo Chiyō, who dissuaded him from the priesthood by convincing him that Nichiren believers best served their faith by striving to embody it in their profession. He returned to Hanamaki due to the renewed illness of his beloved younger sister. At this time he became a teacher at the Agricultural School in Hanamaki. On November 27, 1922, Toshi finally succumbed to her illness and died at age 24. This was a traumatic shock for Miyazawa, from which he never recovered. He composed three poems on the day of her death, collectively entitled "Voiceless Lament" (無声慟哭, Musei Dōkoku).

Miyazawa Kenji standing in a paddy field as a teacher of Hanamaki Agricultural School.

He found employment as a teacher in agricultural science at Hanamaki Agricultural High School (花巻農学校). He managed to put out a collection of poetry, Haru to Shura (春と修羅, "Spring and the Demon") in April 1924, thanks to some borrowings and a major subvention from a producer of nattō. His collection of children's stories and fairy tales, Chūmon no Ōi Ryōriten (注文の多い料理店, "The Restaurant of Many Orders"), also self-published, came out in December of the same year. Although neither were commercial successes — they were largely ignored — his work did come to the attention of the poets Kōtarō Takamura and Shinpei Kusano, who admired his writing greatly and introduced it to the literary world.

Kenji resigned his post as a teacher in 1926 to become a farmer and help improve the lot of the other farmers in the impoverished north-eastern region of Japan by sharing his theoretical knowledge of agricultural science, by imparting to them improved, modern techniques of cultivation. He also taught his fellow farmers more general topics of cultural value, such as music, poetry, and whatever else he thought might improve their lives. He introduced them to classical music by playing to audiences compositions from Beethoven, Schubert, Wagner and Debussy on his gramophone. In August 1926 he established the Rasuchijin Society (羅須地人協会, Rasuchijin Kyōkai, also called the "Rasu Farmers Association"). When asked what "Rasuchijin" meant, he said it meant nothing in particular, but he was probably thinking of chi (地, "earth") and jin (人, "man"). He introduced new agricultural techniques and more resistant strains of rice. At the detached house of his family, where he was staying at the time, he gathered a group of youths from nearby farming families and lectured on agronomy. The Rasuchijin Society also engaged in literary readings, plays, music and other cultural activities. It was disbanded after two years as Japan was being swept up by a militarist turn, in 1928, when the authorities closed it down.

Not all of the local farmers were grateful for his efforts, with some sneering at the idea of a city-slicker playing farmer, and others expressing disappointment that the fertilizers Kenji introduced were not having the desired effects. He advocated natural fertilizers, while many preferred a Western chemical 'fix', which, when it failed, did not stop many from blaming Kenji. Their reservations may have also persisted as he had not wholly broken from economic dependence on his father, to whom farmers were often indebted when their crops failed, in addition to his defection to the Lotus Sect soured their view, as farmers in his area were, like his own father, adherents of the Pure Land Sect. Kenji in turn did not hold an ideal view of the farmers; in one of his poems he describes how a farmer bluntly tells him that all his efforts have done no good for anyone.

According to Sibayama Zyun'iti, he started learning Esperanto in 1926, but never reached a high level in the language. He also studied English and German. At some point he translated some of his poems into Esperanto; the translated pieces were published in 1953, long after his death. According to Jouko Lindstedt, Kenji was made interested in Esperanto by the Finnish scientist and Esperantist Gustaf John Ramstedt, who was working as a diplomat for Finland in Japan.

Kenji's writings from this period show sensitivity for the land and for the people who work in it. He was a prolific writer of children's stories, many of which appear superficially light or humorous but include messages intended for the moral education of the reader. He wrote some works in prose and some stage plays for his students and left behind a large amount of tanka and free verse, most of which was discovered and published posthumously. His poetry, which has been translated into numerous languages, has a considerable following to this day. A number of his children's works have been made into animated movies, anime, in Japan.

He showed little interest in romantic love or sex, both in his private life and in his literary work. Kenji's close friend Tokuya Seki (関登久也, Seki Tokuya) wrote that he died a virgin.

Illness and death

Kenji fell ill in summer 1928, and by the end of that year this had developed into acute pneumonia. He once wept on learning that he had been tricked into eating carp liver. He struggled with pleurisy for many years and was often incapacitated for months at a time. His health improved nonetheless sufficiently for him to take on consultancy work with a rock-crushing company in 1931. The respite was brief; by September of that year, on a visit to Tokyo, he caught pneumonia and had to return to his hometown. In the autumn of 1933, his health seemed to have improved enough for him to watch a local Shinto procession from his doorway; a group of local farmers approached him and engaged him in conversation about fertilizer for about an hour. He died the following day, having been exhausted by the length of his discussion with the farmers. On his deathbed he asked his father to print 1,000 copies of the Lotus Sutra for distribution. His family initially had him buried in the family temple Anjōji (安浄寺), but when they converted to Nichiren Buddhism in 1951, he was moved to the Nichiren temple Shinshōji (身照寺). After his death, he became known in his district as Kenji-bosatsu (賢治菩薩).

Miyazawa left his manuscripts to his younger brother Seiroku, who kept them through the Pacific War and eventually had them published.

Early writings

Kenji started writing poetry as a schoolboy, and composed over a thousand tanka beginning at roughly age 15, in January 1911, a few weeks after the publication of Takuboku's "A Handful of Sand". He favoured this form until the age of 24. Keene said of these early poems that they "were crude in execution, they already prefigure the fantasy and intensity of emotion that would later be revealed in his mature work".

Kenji was removed physically from the poetry circles of his day. He was an avid reader of modern Japanese poets such as Hakushū Kitahara and Sakutarō Hagiwara, and their influence can be traced on his poetry, but his life among farmers has been said to have influenced his poetry more than these literary interests. When he first started writing modern poetry, he was influenced by Kitahara, as well as his fellow Iwatean Takuboku Ishikawa

Kenji's works were influenced by contemporary trends of romanticism and the proletarian literature movement. His readings in Buddhist literature, particularly the Lotus Sutra, to which he became devoted, also came to have a strong influence on his writings.

In 1919, his sister prepared a collection of 662 of his tanka for publication. Kenji edited a volume of extracts from Nichiren’s writings, the year before he join the Kokuchūkai (see below).

He largely abandoned tanka by 1921, and turned his hand instead to the composition of free verse, involving an extension of the conventions governing tanka verse forms. He is said also to have written three thousand pages a month worth of children's stories during this period, thanks to the advice of a priest in the Nichiren order, Takachiyo Chiyō. At the end of the year he managed to sell one of these stories for five yen, which was the only payment he received for his writings during his own lifetime.

Later poetry

"Red Balls", Kenji Miyazawa's painting
"A Power Pole in the Moonlight", by Kenji Miyazawa

The "charms of Kenji's poetry", critic Makota Ueda writes, include "his high idealism, his intensely ethical life, his unique cosmic vision, his agrarianism, his religious faith, and his rich and colorful vocabulary." Ultimately, Ueda writes, "they are all based in a dedicated effort to unify the heterogeneous elements of modern life into a single, coherent whole."

It was in 1922 that Kenji began composing the poetry that would make up his first collection, Haru to Shura. The day his sister died, November 27, 1922, he composed three long poems commemorating her, which Keene states to be among the best of his work. Keene also remarks that the speed at which Kenji composed these poems was characteristic of the poet, as a few months prior he had composed three long poems, one more than 900 lines long, in three days. The first of these poems on the death of his sister was Eiketsu no Asa (永訣の朝, "The Morning of Eternal Parting"), which was the longest. Keene calls it the most affecting of the three. It is written in the form of a "dialogue" between Kenji and Toshi (or Toshiko, as he often calls her). Several lines uttered by his sister are written in a regional dialect so unlike Standard Japanese that Kenji provided translations at the end of the poem. The poem lacks any kind of regular meter, but draws its appeal from the raw emotion it expresses; Keene suggests that Kenji learned this poetic technique from Sakutarō Hagiwara.

Kenji could write a huge volume of poetry in a short time, based mostly on impulse, seemingly with no preconceived plan of how long the poem would be and without considering future revisions.

Donald Keene has speculated that his love of music affected the poetry he was writing in 1922, as this was when he started collecting records of western music, particularly Bach and Beethoven. Much of his poetic tone derives from synesthesia involving music becoming color, especially after the period 1921 and 1926 when he started listening to music of Debussy, Wagner and Strauss.

He was associated with the poetry magazine Rekitei (歴程).

Only the first part in four of Haru to Shura was published during Kenji's lifetime. It appeared in an edition of one thousand copies, but only one hundred sold. For most of his literary career his poems saw publication only in local papers and magazines, but by the time of his death major literary publications had been made aware of him; he died just as his fame was beginning to spread.

With the exception of a few poems in classical Japanese written near the end of his life, virtually all Myazawa'a modern poetry was in colloquial Japanese, occasionally even in dialect. The poems included in Haru to Shura include a liberal sprinkling of scientific vocabulary, Sanskrit phrases, Sino-Japanese compounds and even some Esperanto words. After starting out with traditional tanka, he developed a preference for long, free verse, but continued to occasionally compose tanka even as late as 1921.

Kenji wrote his most famous poem, "Ame ni mo makezu", in his notebook on November 3, 1931. Keene was dismissive of the poetic value of the poem, stating that it is "by no means one of Miyazawa's best poems" and that it is "ironic that should be the one poem for which he is universally known", but that the image of a sickly and dying Kenji writing such a poem of resolute self-encouragement is striking.

Later fiction

Kenji wrote rapidly and tirelessly. He wrote a great number of children's stories, many of them intended to assist in moral education.

His best-known stories include Night on the Galactic Railroad (銀河鉄道の夜, Ginga Tetsudō no Yoru), The Life of Budori Gusuko (グスコーブドリの伝記, Gusukō Budori no Denki), Matasaburō of the Wind [ja] (風の又三郎, Kaze no Matasaburō), Gauche the Cellist (セロ弾きのゴーシュ, Sero Hiki no Gōshu), The Night of Taneyamagahara (種山ヶ原の夜, Taneyamagahara no Yoru), Vegetarian Great Festival (ビジテリアン大祭, Bijiterian Taisai), and The Dragon and the Poet (龍と詩人, Ryū to Shijin)

Other writings

In 1919, Kenji edited a volume of extracts from the writings of Nichiren, and in December 1925 a solicitation to build a Nichiren temple (法華堂建立勧進文, Hokke-dō konryū kanjin-bun) in the Iwate Nippo under a pseudonym.

Religious beliefs

Kenji was born into a family of Pure Land Buddhists, but in 1915 converted to Nichiren Buddhism upon reading the Lotus Sutra and being captivated by it. His conversion created a rift with his relatives, but he nevertheless became active in trying to spread the faith of the Lotus Sutra, walking the streets crying Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō. In January 1921 he made several unsuccessful attempts to convert his family to Nichiren Buddhism.

From January to September 1921, he lived in Tokyo working as a street proselytizer for the Kokuchūkai, a Buddhist-nationalist organization that had initially turned down his service. The general consensus among modern Kenji scholars is that he became estranged from the group and rejected their nationalist agenda, but a few scholars such as Akira Ueda, Gerald Iguchi and Jon Holt argue otherwise. The Kokuchūkai's official website continues to claim him as a member, also claiming that the influence of Nichirenism (the group's religio-political philosophy) can be seen in Kenji's later works such as Ame ni mo Makezu, while acknowledging that others have expressed the view that Kenji became estranged from the group after returning to Hanamaki.

Kenji remained a devotee of the Lotus Sutra until his death, and continued attempting to convert those around him. He made a deathbed request to his father to print one thousand copies of the sutra in Japanese translation and distribute them to friends and associates.

Kenji incorporated a relatively large amount of Buddhist vocabulary in his poems and children's stories. He drew inspiration from mystic visions in which he saw the bodhisattva Kannon, the Buddha himself and fierce demons.

In 1925 Kenji pseudonymously published a solicitation to build a Nichiren temple (法華堂建立勧進文, Hokke-dō konryū kanjin-bun) in Hanamaki, which led to the construction of the present Shinshōji, but on his death his family, who were followers of Pure Land Buddhism, had him interred at a Pure Land temple. His family converted to Nichiren Buddhism in 1951 and moved his grave to Shinshōji, where it is located today.

Donald Keene suggests that while explicitly Buddhist themes are rare in his writings, he incorporated a relatively large amount of Buddhist vocabulary in his poems and children's stories, and has been noted as taking a far greater interest in Buddhism than other Japanese poets of the twentieth century. Keene also contrasted Kenji's piety to the "relative indifference to Buddhism" on the part of most modern Japanese poets.

Themes

He loved his native province, and the mythical landscape of his fiction, known by the generic neologism, coined in a poem in 1923, as Īhatōbu (Ihatov) is often thought to allude to Iwate (Ihate in the older spelling). Several theories exist as to the possible derivations of this fantastic toponym: one theory breaks it down into a composite of I for 'Iwate'; hāto (English 'heart') and obu (English 'of'), yielding 'the heart or core of Iwate'. Others cite Esperanto and German forms as keys to the word's structure, and derive meanings varying from 'I don't know where' to 'Paradise'. Among the variation of names, there is Ihatovo, and the addition of final o is supposed to be the noun ending of Esperanto, whose idea of common international language interested him.

Reception

Kenji's poetry managed to attract some attention during his lifetime. According to Hiroaki Sato, Haru to Shura, which appeared in April 1924, "electrified several of the poets who read it." These included the first reviewer, Dadaist Tsuji Jun, who wrote that he chose the book for his summer reading in the Japan Alps, and anarchist Shinpei Kusano (草野心平, Kusano Shinpei), who called the book shocking and inspirational, and Satō Sōnosuke, who wrote in a review for a poetry magazine that it "astonished the most" out of all the books of poems he had received. However, such occasional murmurs of interest were a far cry from the chorus of praise later directed toward his poetry.

In February 1934, some time after his memorial service, his literary friends held an event where they organized his unpublished manuscripts. These were slowly published over the following decade, and his fame increased rapidly in the postwar period.

The poet Gary Snyder is credited as introducing Kenji's poetry to English readers. "In the 1960s, Snyder, then living in Kyoto and pursuing Buddhism, was offered a grant to translate Japanese literature. He sought Burton Watson’s opinion, and Watson, a scholar of Chinese classics trained at the University of Kyoto, recommended Kenji." Some years earlier Jane Imamura at the Buddhist Study Center in Berkeley had shown him a Kenji translation which had impressed him. Snyder's translations of eighteen poems by Kenji appeared in his collection, The Back Country (1967).

The Miyazawa Kenji Museum was opened in 1982 in his native Hanamaki, in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of his death. It displays the few manuscripts and artifacts from Kenji's life that escaped the destruction of Hanamaki by American bombers in World War II.

In 1982, Oh! Production finished an animated feature film adaptation of Miyazawa's Gauche the Cellist, with Studio Ghibli and Buena Vista Home Entertainment re-releasing the film as a double-disc commemoration of Miyazawa's 110th birthday along with an English-subtitle version.

Manga artist Hiroshi Masumura has adapted many of Miyazawa's stories as manga since the 1980s, often using anthropomorphic cats as protagonists. The 1985 anime adaptation of Ginga tetsudō no yoru (Night on the Galactic Railroad), in which all signs in Giovanni and Campanella's world are written in Esperanto, is based on Masumura's manga. In 1996, to mark the 100th anniversary of Kenji's birth, the anime Īhatōbu Gensō: Kenji no Haru (Ihatov Fantasy: Kenji's Spring; North American title: Spring and Chaos) was released as a depiction of Kenji's life. As in the Night on the Galactic Railroad anime, the main characters are depicted as cats.

The Japanese culture and lifestyle television show Begin Japanology aired on NHK World featured a full episode on Miyazawa Kenji in 2008.

The JR train SL Ginga (SL銀河, Esueru Ginga) was restored with inspiration from and named in honor of his work in 2013.

The 2015 anime Punch Line and its video game adaptation features a self-styled hero who calls himself Kenji Miyazawa and has a habit of quoting his poetry when arriving on scene. When other characters wonder who he is after his sudden initial appearance, they point out that he cannot be the "poet who wrote books for kids" because he died in 1933.

See also

Notes

  1. The individual poems are entitled "Eiketsu no Asa" (永訣の朝), "Matsu no Hari" (松の針) and "Musei Dōkoku" (無声慟哭).

Reference list

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. ^ David Poulson, Miyazawa Kenji
  4. Makoto Ueda, Modern Japanese Poets and the Nature of Literature, Stanford University Press, 1983 pp.184–320, p.184
  5. ^ Kilpatrick 2014, pp. 11–25.
  6. ^ Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan article "Miyazawa Kenji" (p. 222–223). 1983. Tokyo: Kodansha.
  7. ^ "Ryakenpu, Omona Dekigoto". Miyazawa Kenji Memorial Society website. Miyazawa Kenji Memorial Society. Archived from the original on April 29, 2015. Retrieved May 1, 2015..
  8. ^ Massimo Cimarelli (ed.tr.), Miyazawa Kenji: Il drago e il poeta, Volume Edizioni srl, 2014 p.3
  9. ^ Keene 1999, p. 284.
  10. ^ Margaret Mitsutani, "The Regional as the Center: The Poetry of Miyazawa Kenji", in Klaus Martens, Paul Duncan Morris, Arlette Warken (eds.) A World of Local Voices: Poetry in English Today, Königshausen & Neumann, 2003 pp.66–72 p.67.
  11. Ueda p.217
  12. Katsumi Fujii (March 23, 2009). Heisei Nijū-nendo Kokuritsu Daigaku Hōjin Iwate Daigaku Sotsugyōshiki Shikiji 平成20年度国立大学法人岩手大学卒業式式辞 [President’s Address at the Graduation Ceremony of Iwate University, School Year 2008] (Speech) (in Japanese). Morioka. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved April 30, 2015. 1918年三月、本学農学部の前身である盛岡高等農林学校を卒業した賢治は、農業実践の指導を先ず教育の現場に求め、3年後に稗貫農学校(現在の花巻農業 高校)の教員となります。その後、詩に童話に旺盛な文芸活動を展開しましたが、病を得てさらに12年後、わずか37歳で帰らぬ人となったことは、ご承知の 通りです。
  13. Keene 1999, pp. 284–285.
  14. ^ Keene 1999, p. 285.
  15. ^ Miyakubo and Matsukawa 2013, p. 169.
  16. Hoyt Long ,On Uneven Ground: Miyazawa Kenji and the Making of Place in Modern Japan, Stanford University Press, 2011 p.369 n.5
  17. ^ Keene 1999, p. 288.
  18. Mitsutani p.67.
  19. Keene 1999, p. 289.
  20. Keene 1999, p. 289, citing (note 197, p. 379) Miyazawa Kenji 1968, p. 311–314.
  21. ^ Miyamoto Masao and Sibayama Zyun'iti: Poemoj de MIYAZAWA Kenzi, memtradukitaj esperanten
  22. "Kenji Miyazawa Ihatovkan Exhibition "Kenji Miyazawa and Esperanto Exhibition"".
  23. Jouko Lindstedt: Scientisto, diplomato, esperantisto (part 2)
  24. Pulvers 2007, pp. 9–28. "Kenji, it must be remembered, was a man who displayed no particular interest in romantic love or sex." Keene, though, states "he sometimes wandered all night in the wood in order in order to subdue the waves of sexual desire " (Keene 1999, p. 288).
  25. Keene 1999, p. 288, citing (note 193, p. 379) Seki 1971, pp. 130–132.
  26. Keene 1999, pp. 289–290.
  27. Keene 1999, p. 290, citing (note 198, p. 379) Kushida, "Shijin to Shōzō" in Miyazawa Kenji 1968, p. 393.
  28. ^ Keene 1999, p. 291.
  29. ^ "Marugoto Jiten: Shinshōji". Ihatovo Hanamaki. Hanamaki Tourism & Convention Bureau. 2011. Retrieved March 1, 2015.
  30. Nagai, Kaori (2022). Foreeord in: "Night Train to the Starts and other stories" by Kenji Miyazawa. Vintage Classics. p. xii. ISBN 9781784877767.
  31. Ueda Makoto p.217.
  32. Keene 1999, p. 283.
  33. Keene 1999, pp. 283–284.
  34. Ueda pp.218–219
  35. Ueda 184
  36. ^ Keene 1999, pp. 285–286.
  37. ^ Keene 1999, p. 286.
  38. ^ Keene 1999, p. 287.
  39. Keene 1999, p. 356 (also note 347, p. 384).
  40. Endō, Tomoyuki (October 10, 2012). "Nomura Kiwao-sensei ga "Fujimura Kinen Rekitei Shō" o jushō!". Wako University Blog. Wako University. Retrieved May 1, 2015.
  41. ^ Keene 1999, p. 290.
  42. ^ Nabeshima (ed.) 2005, p. 34.
  43. Stone 2003, pp. 197–198.
  44. Stone 2003, p. 198.
  45. Holt, 2014, pp. 312–314.
  46. "Tanaka Chigaku-sensei no Eikyō o Uketa Hitobito: Miyazawa Kenji". Kokuchūkai official website. Kokuchūkai. Retrieved March 1, 2015.
  47. ^ Rasu Chijin Kyōkai. "Hanamaki o aruku". Chuo University faculty website. Chuo University. Retrieved May 1, 2015. 賢治は熱心な法華経信者でこの寺の建立のため「法華堂建立勧進文」まで書いているが、宮澤家が真宗だったため、死後真宗の寺に葬られていた。昭和二十六年、賢治の遺志を請けて、宮澤家が改宗し、日蓮宗のこの寺に葬られることになった。宮澤家の骨堂の左側にあるのが賢治供養塔である。
  48. "Minobu-betsuin Shinshōji". Tōhoku Jiin no Sōgō Jōhō Saito: E-Tera. Coyo Photo Office Corporation. 2010. Archived from the original on January 29, 2015. Retrieved March 1, 2015.
  49. "Miyazawa Kenji: Yukari no Chi o Tazunete". Iwate Hanamaki Travel Agency website. Iwate Hanamaki Travel Agency. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 1, 2015.
  50. Kilpatrick p.192 n.77
  51. Sato (2007), 2.
  52. Sato (2007), 1.
  53. Snyder 1967, pp. 115–128.
  54. CINEMASIE.COM, Gauche the Cellist
  55. DVD talk, Cello Hiki no Gauche Archived 2006-10-19 at the Wayback Machine
  56. Ghibli World, 15th of July, Hayao Miyazaki's New Film Taneyamagahara no Yoru & Serohiki no Goshu Release Special Archived 2013-03-02 at the Wayback Machine
  57. "Ihatobu Genso: Kenji no Haru (TV Movie 1996)". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved January 9, 2020.
  58. JR東:復元中のC58の列車名「SL銀河」に…来春運行 [JR East to name C58 train currently being restored "SL Ginga" - entering service next spring]. Mainichi.jp (in Japanese). Japan: The Mainichi Newspapers. 6 November 2013. Archived from the original on 14 December 2013. Retrieved 6 October 2021.
  59. ""Fight, Kenji Miyazawa!" Trophy - Punchline (EU) (PS4)". PlayStationTrophies.org. 25 September 2018. Retrieved 2021-05-23.

Bibliography

Works in English translation

  • Miyazawa, Kenji. The Milky Way Railroad. Translated by Joseph Sigrist and D. M. Stroud. Stone Bridge Press (1996). ISBN 1-880656-26-4
  • Miyazawa Kenji. Night of the Milky Way Railroad. M.E. Sharpe (1991). ISBN 0-87332-820-5
  • Miyazawa Kenji. The Restaurant of Many Orders. RIC Publications (2006). ISBN 1-74126-019-1
  • Miyazawa Kenji. Miyazawa Kenji Selections. University of California Press (2007). ISBN 0-520-24779-5
  • Miyazawa Kenji. Winds from Afar. Kodansha (1992).ISBN 087011171X
  • Miyazawa Kenji. The Dragon and the Poet. translated by Massimo Cimarelli, Volume Edizioni (2013), ebook. ISBN 9788897747161
  • Miyazawa Kenji. The Dragon and the Poet – illustrated version. Translated by Massimo Cimarelli. Illustrated by Francesca Eleuteri. Volume Edizioni (2013), ebook. ISBN 9788897747185
  • Miyazawa Kenji. Once and Forever: The Tales of Kenji Miyazawa. Translated by John Bester. Kodansha International (1994). ISBN 4-7700-1780-4
  • Miyazawa Kenji. Night Train to the Stars and other stories. Translated by John Bester, introduction by Kaori Nagai. Vintage Classics (2022). ISBN 9781784877767
  • Snyder, Gary. The Back Country. New York: New Directions, 1967.

Adaptations

Critical studies

External links

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