The First Modern Japanese: The Life of Ishikawa Takuboku (Asia Perspectives: History, Society, and Culture)

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Description

Many books in Japanese have been devoted to the poet and critic Ishikawa Takuboku (1886–1912). Despite the fact that he died at the age of twenty-six and wrote many of his best-known poems in the space of a couple of years, his name is familiar to each and every literate Japanese. Takuboku’s early death added to the sad romance of the unhappy poet, but there was no satisfactory biography of his life or career, even in Japanese, and only a small a part of his writings have been translated. His mature poetry used to be based on the work of no predecessor, and he left no disciples. Takuboku stands unique.

Takuboku’s hottest poems, especially those with a humorous overlay, are incessantly read and memorized, but his diaries and letters, though less familiar, contain rich and vivid glimpses of the poet’s thoughts and experiences. They reflect the outlook of an unconstrained man who at times behaved in a startling or even shocking manner. In spite of his misdemeanors, Takuboku is considered a national poet, all but a saint to his admirers, especially in the regions of Japan where he lived. His refusal to conform to the Japan of the time drove him in striking directions and ranked him as the first poet of the new Japan.

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