Famous Poets from Japan
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Matsuo Bashō (松尾 芭蕉, 1644–1694), born 松尾 金作, then Matsuo Chūemon Munefusa (松尾 忠右衛門 宗房), was the most famous poet of the Edo period in Japan. During his lifetime, Bashō was recognized for his works in the collaborative haikai no renga form; today, after centuries of commentary, he is recognized as the greatest master of haiku (then called hokku). Matsuo Bashō's poetry is internationally renowned; and, in Japan, many of his poems are reproduced on monuments and traditional sites. Although Bashō is justifiably famous in the West for his hokku, he himself believed his best work lay in leading and participating in renku. He is quoted as saying, "Many of my followers can write hokku as well as I can. Where I show who I really am is in linking haikai verses."Bashō was introduced to poetry at a young age, and after integrating himself into the intellectual scene of Edo (modern Tokyo) he quickly became well known throughout Japan. He made a living as a teacher; but then renounced the social, urban life of the literary circles and was inclined to wander throughout the country, heading west, east, and far into the northern wilderness to gain inspiration for his writing. His poems were influenced by his firsthand experience of the world around him, often encapsulating the feeling of a scene in a few simple elements.- Age: Dec. at 50 (1644-1694)
- Birthplace: Ueno, Mie
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- Eriko Kishida was a poet and a writer of children's story.
- Age: Dec. at 82 (1929-2011)
- Birthplace: Suginami, Japan
- Gackt Camui, professionally known as Gackt, hails from Okinawa, Japan and is a multi-faceted talent whose magnetism has transcended boundaries. Born on July 4, 1973, he ascended to stardom initially as a frontman of the visual kei rock band Malice Mizer in the 1990s. His unique blend of baroque aesthetics and gothic rock led the band to gain significant popularity. However, his desire to explore new creative avenues prompted him to embark on a solo career in 1999. Known for his broad vocal range and diverse musical style, Gackt quickly established himself as a pillar in the Japanese music industry. His debut solo album, Mars, was met with wide acclaim and solidified his status as an influential artist. Over time, his discography expanded to include numerous hit singles, albums, and successful tours, spanning genres from pop, rock, classical to electronic music - making him one of the best-selling music artists in Japan. Beyond his impressive music career, Gackt's charisma and distinctive style opened doors to other entertainment spheres. He ventured into acting, starring in several films and television dramas such as Fuurin Kazan and Moon Child. He also lent his voice and likeness to video game characters, most notably Genesis Rhapsodos in Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus. Not limiting himself to entertainment, Gackt demonstrated his prowess in writing with the release of his autobiography, Jihaku (Confessions). Throughout his career, Gackt has proven himself to be a true renaissance man, gifted in music, acting, and writing - leaving a lasting impact on the world of entertainment.
- Age: 51
- Birthplace: Okinawa Prefecture, Japan
- Ihara Saikaku (井原 西鶴, 1642 – September 9, 1693) was a Japanese poet and creator of the "floating world" genre of Japanese prose (ukiyo-zōshi). Born as Hirayama Tōgo (平山藤五), the son of a wealthy merchant in Osaka, he first studied haikai poetry under Matsunaga Teitoku and later studied under Nishiyama Sōin of the Danrin school of poetry, which emphasized comic linked verse. Scholars have described numerous extraordinary feats of solo haikai composition at one sitting; most famously, over the course of a single day and night in 1677, Saikaku is reported to have composed at least 16,000 haikai stanzas, with some sources placing the number at over 23,500 stanzas.Later in life he began writing racy accounts of the financial and amorous affairs of the merchant class and the demimonde. These stories catered to the whims of the newly prominent merchant class, whose tastes of entertainment leaned toward the arts and pleasure districts.
- Age: Dec. at 51 (1642-1693)
- Birthplace: Namba, Japan
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Katué Kitasono (北園 克衛, Kitazono Katsue, October 29, 1902–June 6, 1978) was a renowned Japanese poet and photographer. He was born in the city of Ise, Mie Prefecture, Japan.- Age: Dec. at 76 (1902-1978)
- Birthplace: Ise, Japan
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- Yasutaro Soga was a Hawaiian Issei journalist, poet and activist. He was a community leader among Japanese Hawaiians, serving as chief editor of the Nippu Jiji, then the largest Japanese-language newspaper in Hawaii and the mainland United States, and organizing efforts to foster positive Japan-U.S. relations and address discriminatory legislation, labor rights and other issues facing Japanese Americans. An accomplished news writer and tanka poet before the war, during his time in camp Soga authored one of the earliest memoirs of the wartime detention of Japanese Americans, Tessaku Seikatsu or Life Behind Barbed Wire.
- Age: Dec. at 83 (1873-1957)
- Birthplace: Tokyo, Japan
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Kenji Miyazawa (宮沢 賢治 or 宮澤 賢治, Miyazawa Kenji, 27 August 1896 – 21 September 1933) was a Japanese poet and author of children's literature from Hanamaki, Iwate, in the late Taishō and early Shōwa periods. He was also known as an agricultural science teacher, a 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. Kenji 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. Kenji founded the Rasu Farmers Association to improve the lives of peasants in Iwate Prefecture. He was also a speaker of 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, Kenji'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.- Age: Dec. at 37 (1896-1933)
- Birthplace: Hanamaki, Japan
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Kyo (Japanese: 京, Hepburn: Kyō, born February 16, 1976 in Kyoto) is a Japanese musician, singer, lyricist and poet. He is best known as the vocalist and lyricist of the metal band Dir en grey. He was formerly in a string of visual kei rock bands, with the most notable being La:Sadie’s from 1995 to 1997. He then started Dir en grey in February 1997, following La:Sadie’s disbandment with three of its members, and formed the experimental rock band Sukekiyo in 2013. Kyo was inspired to become a musician when he saw a picture of Buck-Tick vocalist Atsushi Sakurai on the desk of a junior high school classmate. When he then discovered X Japan he was particularly fond of hide and had his parents buy him the guitarist's black signature model guitar. But after realizing how difficult it was to play guitar and then bass, he switched to vocals.- Age: 48
- Birthplace: Kyoto, Keihanshin, Japan
Masaharu Fuji
Masaharu Fuji is a novelist and poet.- Age: Dec. at 73 (1913-1987)
- Birthplace: Miyoshi District, Tokushima
Michio Mado
Michio Mado (まど・みちお, Mado Michio, 16 November 1909 − 28 February 2014) was a Japanese poet. He received the international Hans Christian Andersen Medal in 1994 for his "lasting contribution to children's literature".- Age: Dec. at 104 (1909-2014)
- Birthplace: Shunan, Japan
Mitsuharu Kaneko
Mitsuharu Kaneko (金子 光晴, Kaneko Mitsuharu, 25 December 1895 – 30 June 1975) was a Japanese poet and painter. He was a recipient of the Yomiuri Prize.- Age: Dec. at 79 (1895-1975)
- Birthplace: Tsushima, Japan
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Lieutenant-General Mori Rintarō (森林太郎, February 17, 1862 – July 8, 1922), known by his pen name Mori Ōgai (森鴎外), was a Japanese Army Surgeon general officer, translator, novelist, poet and father of famed author Mari Mori. He obtained his medical license at a very young age and introduced translated German literary works to the Japanese public. Mori Ōgai also was considered the first to successfully express the art of western poetry into Japanese. He wrote many works and created many writing styles. The Wild Geese (1911–13) is considered his major work. After his death, he was considered one of the leading writers who modernized Japanese literature.- Age: Dec. at 60 (1862-1922)
- Birthplace: Tsuwano, Japan
Rie Yoshiyuki
Rie Yoshiyuki was a novelist and poet.- Age: Dec. at 66 (1939-2006)
- Birthplace: Tokyo, Japan
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Ryūichi Tamura (田村隆一, Tamura Ryūichi, 18 March 1923 – 26 August 1998) was a Japanese poet, essayist and translator of English language novels and poetry who was active during the Shōwa period of Japan.- Age: Dec. at 75 (1923-1998)
- Birthplace: Toshima, Tokyo, Japan
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Sakae Tsuboi
Sakae Tsuboi (壺井 栄, Tsuboi Sakae, 5 August 1899 – 23 June 1967) was a Japanese novelist and poet.- Age: Dec. at 67 (1899-1967)
- Birthplace: Shodoshima, Japan
- Sesson Yūbai (雪村 友梅, 1290 - 14th day of the 1st month, 1348) was a Japanese Zen Buddhist monk of the Rinzai sect. This priest and poet who is considered "the first important poet of the Five Mountains.
- Age: Dec. at 58 (1290-1348)
- Birthplace: Japan
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Shūji Terayama (寺山 修司, Terayama Shūji, December 10, 1935 – May 4, 1983) was an avant-garde Japanese poet, dramatist, writer, film director, and photographer. Many critics view him as one of the most productive and provocative creative artists to come out of Japan. He has been cited as an influence on various Japanese filmmakers from the 1970s onward.- Age: Dec. at 47 (1935-1983)
- Birthplace: Hirosaki, Japan
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Shun Hasegawa
Shun Hasegawa was a poet, writer and studied Russian literature.- Age: Dec. at 67 (1906-1973)
- Birthplace: Hakodate, Japan
- Shuntarō Tanikawa (谷川 俊太郎, Tanikawa Shuntarō) (born December 15, 1931 in Tokyo City, Japan) is a Japanese poet and translator. He is one of the most widely read and highly regarded of living Japanese poets, both in Japan and abroad, and a frequent subject of speculations regarding the Nobel Prize in Literature. Several of his collections, including his selected works, have been translated into English, and his Floating the River in Melancholy, translated by William I. Eliott and Kazuo Kawamura, won the American Book Award in 1989. Tanikawa has written more than 60 books of poetry in addition to translating Charles Schulz's Peanuts and the Mother Goose rhymes into Japanese. He was nominated for the 2008 Hans Christian Andersen Award for his contributions to children's literature. He also helped translate Swimmy by Leo Lionni into Japanese. Among his contributions to less conventional art genres is his open video correspondence with Shūji Terayama (Video Letter, 1983). He has collaborated several times with the lyricist Chris Mosdell, including creating a deck of cards created in the omikuji fortune-telling tradition of Shinto shrines, titled The Oracles of Distraction. Tanikawa also co-wrote Kon Ichikawa's Tokyo Olympiad and wrote the lyrics to the theme song of Howl's Moving Castle. Together with Jerome Rothenberg and Hiromi Itō, he has participated in collaborative renshi poetry, pioneered by Makoto Ōoka.The philosopher Tetsuzō Tanikawa was his father. The author-illustrator Yōko Sano was his wife, and illustrated a volume of his poems: Onna Ni, translated by William I. Elliott and Kazuo Kawamura (Shueisha, 2012).
- Age: 93
- Birthplace: Tokyo City
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Sion Sono is a director, writer, and actor who is known for directing "Prisoners of the Ghostland," "Himizu," and "Why Don't You Play in Hell?."- Age: 63
- Birthplace: Toyokawa, Aichi, Japan
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Takashi Nagatsuka (長塚 節, Nagatsuka Takashi, April 3, 1879–February 8, 1915) was a Japanese poet and novelist. According to prominent historian Ann Waswo, Nagatsuka Takashi was born into a landowning family. Generally, he was born in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. More specifically, his place of birth was 国生村 (Kosshō Village) in 石下町 (Ishige Town), which was merged in 2006 with 水海道市 (Mitsukaido City) to form modern day 常総市 (Joso City). In 1896, poor health forced him to stop his middle-school education in Mito. In accordance with his duties as eldest son, he assisted his mother Taka in managing their six acres of arable land. He started experimenting in 1905 with different fertilizers, crop-rotation, charcoal-production, and commercial-grade bamboo-production. These are just some of his attempts to save the family's finances from the political career of his father Genjiro (who was elected during the late 1880s to the prefectural assembly), since he tended to absorb other people's debts. In Tokyo, he studied poetry with Masaoka Shiki starting 1900 until 1902, the same year Shiki died of tuberculosis.His only novel 土 ("Tsuchi"; "The Soil") was published in 151-installment series from June–November of1910 in the 東京朝日新聞 (Tokyo Asahi Shimbun; Tokyo Morning-Sun Newspaper), which eventually became today's 朝日新聞 (Asahi Shimbun ; Morning-Sun Newspaper) after a merger with the 大阪朝日新聞 (Osaka Asahi Shimbun; Osaka Morning-Sun Newspaper). Two years after its newspaper serialization, 土 was published as a complete work in book form in 1912. The novel depicts life in rural Japan and in Kossho Village. The characters are based on actual people although their names are altered. The novel's copyright expired in the mid-1960s. He died of laryngeal tuberculosis on February 8, 1915.- Age: Dec. at 35 (1879-1915)
- Birthplace: Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan
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Takeshi Kitano might not be a household name in North America, but with his Japanese legacy, he probably should be. Kitano's career spanned many decades and spread across different genres, styles, and mediums. He was part of a popular comedy duo in the 1970s and 1980s. He hosted a popular game show. He starred in, wrote, and directed numerous movies, ranging from hard-boiled and violent yakuza-focused ones to light-hearted surrealist comedies. Kitano lived through trials and tribulations, including a turbulent relationship (or lack thereof) with his father and a life-altering motorcycle accident in the mid-1990s, just when he reached international acclaim as a filmmaker. Kitano, or Beat Takeshi as he was known in his acting roles, had a lengthy resume, with some of the most acclaimed Japanese films ever made to his name. He was often seen as the successor to Akira Kurosawa, and sometimes even referred to as the Japanese Woody Allen. Whatever he was exactly, he was a rare breed.- Age: 78
- Birthplace: Tokyo, Japan
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Yasushi Inoue (井上靖, Inoue Yasushi, May 6, 1907 – January 29, 1991) was a Japanese writer of poetry, essays, short fiction, and novels. Born in Asahikawa, Hokkaido in 1907, Inoue was raised in Shizuoka Prefecture.- Age: Dec. at 83 (1907-1991)
- Birthplace: Asahikawa, Japan
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Yonejirō Noguchi (野口 米次郎, Noguchi Yonejirō, December 8, 1875 – July 13, 1947) was an influential Japanese writer of poetry, fiction, essays and literary criticism in both English and Japanese. He is known in the west as Yone Noguchi. He was the father of noted sculptor Isamu Noguchi.- Age: Dec. at 71 (1875-1947)
- Birthplace: Tsushima, Japan
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Yukio Mishima (三島 由紀夫, Mishima Yukio) is the pen name of Kimitake Hiraoka (平岡 公威, Hiraoka Kimitake, January 14, 1925 – November 25, 1970), a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor, model, film director, nationalist, and founder of the Tatenokai. Mishima is considered one of the most important Japanese authors of the 20th century. He was considered for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1968, but the award went to his countryman Yasunari Kawabata. His works include the novels Confessions of a Mask and The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, and the autobiographical essay Sun and Steel. Mishima’s work is characterized by its luxurious vocabulary and decadent metaphors, its fusion of traditional Japanese and modern Western literary styles, and its obsessive assertions of the unity of beauty, eroticism and death.Ideologically a right wing nationalist, Mishima formed the Tatenokai, an unarmed civilian militia, for the avowed purpose of restoring power to the Japanese Emperor. On November 25, 1970, Mishima and four members of his militia entered a military base in central Tokyo, took the commandant hostage, and attempted to inspire the Japan Self-Defense Forces to overturn Japan's 1947 Constitution. When this was unsuccessful, Mishima committed ritual suicide by disembowelment.- Age: Dec. at 45 (1925-1970)
- Birthplace: Shinjuku, Japan
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