Takashi Hiraide (平出 隆, Hiraide Takashi; born 21 November 1950 in moji, now a part of Kitakyūshū, Fukuoka) is a Japanese…Takashi Hiraide (平出 隆, Hiraide Takashi; born 21 November 1950 in moji, now a part of Kitakyūshū, Fukuoka) is a Japanese poet, critic, book designer, and professor. Hiraide's most celebrated work, published in English, is The Guest Cat (2014). The Guest Cat made the New York Times best-seller list in the same year it was published in English, 2014 and has reached international acclaim.
Chimako Tada (多田智満子, Tada Chimako; April 1, 1930 – January 23, 2003) was a Japanese poet renowned for her surreal style…Chimako Tada (多田智満子, Tada Chimako; April 1, 1930 – January 23, 2003) was a Japanese poet renowned for her surreal style and evocation of women's experience in post-war Japan. She authored more than 15 books of Japanese poetry, and also translated prose and poetry from French. Tada wrote in traditional styles, such as tanka and haiku, as well as contemporary prose poetry.
Tarō Naka (Japanese: 那珂太郎, Hepburn: Naka Tarō; 23 January 1922 – 1 June 2014) was a prize-winning Japanese poet. He was…Tarō Naka (Japanese: 那珂太郎, Hepburn: Naka Tarō; 23 January 1922 – 1 June 2014) was a prize-winning Japanese poet. He was born Shōjirō Fukuda in Hakata, now Fukuoka, on the island of Kyushu in western Japan. At school he read, among others, Sakutarō Hagiwara, Friedrich Nietzsche, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Charles Baudelaire, and the Kyoto School philosopher Kitarō Nishida. In April 1941, he entered Tokyo Imperial University to study Japanese Literature. Some of his earliest poems dealing with the war and its immediate aftermath appeared in his debut collection, Etudes, in 1950, published by his high-school classmate Tokuo Date's Eureka Press. Between 1957 and 1964, Naka worked on what the critic Shōbin Hirai, among many others, considered his magnum opus, his 1965 collection Ongaku ('Music'). It was published by Shichōsha, Japan's foremost poetry publisher, in a limited edition of four hundred copies. It received widespread critical praise and was awarded the Yomiuri Prize and the Saisei Murō Prize. The collection is characterized by its high degree of attention to the interplay between the visual, phonetic and semantic aspects of words. In 2003, he composed a nō play, Shikōtei ('The First Emperor'), which was performed at the National Noh Theatre on 20 March 2014, a few months before Naka died from pneumonia in June 2014. An English translation of his work, Music: Selected Poems, was published by Isobar Press in July 2018.
Junichi Yoda (与田凖一, Yoda Jun'ichi; June 25, 1905 in Fukuoka – February 3, 1997) was a Japanese poet and a leading…Junichi Yoda (与田凖一, Yoda Jun'ichi; June 25, 1905 in Fukuoka – February 3, 1997) was a Japanese poet and a leading figure among Japanese authors of children's books during the Shōwa period.
Yumeno Kyūsaku (夢野 久作; 4 January 1889 – 11 March 1936) was the pen name of Sugiyama Yasumichi (杉山 泰道), an early Shōwa…Yumeno Kyūsaku (夢野 久作; 4 January 1889 – 11 March 1936) was the pen name of Sugiyama Yasumichi (杉山 泰道), an early Shōwa period Japanese author, Zen priest, post office director and sub-lieutenant. The pen name roughly means "a person who always dreams". His Dharma name was Goshin-in Gin'en Taidō-koji (悟真院吟園泰道居士). He wrote detective novels and is known for his avant-gardism and his surrealistic, wildly imaginative and fantastic, even bizarre narratives.
