Mutsuo Takahashi
Encyclopedia
is one of the most prominent and prolific male poet
s, essayists, and writers of contemporary Japan
, with more than three dozen collections of poetry
, several works of prose
, dozens books of essays, and several major literary prizes to his name. He is especially well known for his open writing about male homoeroticism
. He currently lives in the seaside town of Zushi, several kilometers south of Yokohama
, Japan.
, Takahashi spent his early years living in the countryside of Japan. As Takahashi describes in his memoirs published in 1970, his father, a factory worker in a metal plant, died of pneumonia
when Takahashi was one hundred and five days old, leaving his mother to fend for herself in the world. Taking advantage of the opportunities presented by the expanding Japanese empire, she left Takahashi and his sisters with their grandparents in the rural town of Nōgata and went to Tientsin in mainland China
to be with a lover.
Due to his grandparents’ poverty, Takahashi spent much time with extended family and other neighbors. Especially important to him during this time was an uncle that served a pivotal figure in Takahashi’s development, serving as a masculine role model and object of love. Again, however, historical fate intervened, and the uncle, whom Takahashi later described in many early poems, was sent to the battlefield in Burma, where illness claimed his life.
After Takahashi’s mother returned from the mainland, they went to live in the port of Moji
, just as the bombings of the mainland by the Allied powers
intensified. Takahashi’s memoirs describe that although he hated the war, World War II
provided a chaotic and frightening circus for his fellow classmates, who would go to gawk at the wreckage of the B-29s that fell from the sky and to watch ships blow up at sea, destroyed by naval mine
s. Takahashi writes that when the war came to an end, he felt a great sense of relief.
In his memoirs and interviews, Takahashi has mentioned that in the time he spent with his schoolmates, he became increasingly aware of his own sexual preference for men
. This became a common subject in the first book of poetry he published in 1959.
, and in 1962 moved to Tokyo. For many years, he worked at an advertising company, but in the meantime, he wrote a good deal of poetry. His first book to receive national attention was , an anthology published in 1964 that describes male-male erotic love
in bold and direct language. A laudatory review from the critic Jun Etō
appeared in the daily newspaper Asahi shimbun
with Takahashi’s photograph—an unusual instance of a poet’s photograph included in the paper’s survey of literature.
About the same time, Takahashi sent the collection to the novelist Yukio Mishima
who contacted him and offered to use his name to help promote Takahashi’s work. The two shared a close relationship and friendship that lasted until Mishima’s suicide in 1970. Other close friends Takahashi made about this time include Tatsuhiko Shibusawa
who translated the Marquis de Sade
into Japanese, the surreal poet Chimako Tada who shared Takahashi's interest in classical Greece, the poet Shigeo Washisu who was also interested in the classics and the existential ramifications of homoeroticism. With the latter two writers, Takahashi cooperated to create the literary journal named after Plato’s famous dialogue
. This interest in eroticism and existentialism, in turn, is a reflection of a larger existential
trend in the literature and culture of Japan during the 1960s and 1970s.
Homoeroticism remained an important them in his poetry written in free verse through the 1970s, including the long poem , which the publisher Winston Leyland has called “the great gay poem of the 20th century.” Many of these early works have been translated into English by Hiroaki Sato and reprinted in the collection Partings at Dawn: An Anthology of Japanese Gay Literature.
About the same time, Takahashi started writing prose. In 1970, he published Twelve Views from the Distance about his early life and the novella about his own erotic awakening. In 1972, he wrote , a surrealistic novella inspired by his own experiences during a forty-day trip to New York City
in which Donald Richie
led him through the gay, underground spots of the city. In 1974, he released , a homoerotic and often extremely humorous reworking of a legend of Sudhana
found in the Buddhist classic Avatamsaka Sutra
.
As with his early writing, Takahashi’s later writing shows a high degree of erudition, including a thorough awareness of the history of world literature and art. In fact, many of his collections published from the 1980s onward, include poems either dedicated to or about important authors around the world, including Jorge Luis Borges
, Jean Genet
, Ezra Pound
, and Chimako Tada,—each a homage to an important literary predecessor. For instance, in 2010, Takahashi has also produced a slim book of poems to accompany a 2010 exhibition of the work of the American artist Joseph Cornell
.
Although Takahashi has been most visibly active in the realm of free verse poetry, he has also written traditional Japanese verse (both tanka
and haiku
poetry), novels, Nō
and Kyōgen
plays, reworkings of ancient Greek dramas and epic poetry, countless works of literary criticism, and even a libretto
for an opera
by the contemporary Japanese composer Akira Miyoshi
.
Since the broadening of Takahashi’s themes in the 1970s and his retirement from the advertising agency in the 1980s, the pace of his publication has only increased. He has been the recipient of a number of important literary prizes in Japan, such as the Rekitei Prize, the Yomiuri Literary Prize, the Takami Jun Prize, the Modern Poetry Hanatsubaki Prize, and the Shika Bungakukan Prize, and in 2000, he earned the prestigious Kunshō award for his contributions to modern Japanese literature.
Takahashi presently lives in the seaside city of Zushi, ten kilometers from Yokohama
. His poems have been translated into languages as diverse as Chinese
, Norwegian
, Spanish
, and Afrikaans
. He frequently gives readings and talks around the world.
See also
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
s, essayists, and writers of contemporary Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, with more than three dozen collections of poetry
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
, several works of prose
Prose
Prose is the most typical form of written language, applying ordinary grammatical structure and natural flow of speech rather than rhythmic structure...
, dozens books of essays, and several major literary prizes to his name. He is especially well known for his open writing about male homoeroticism
Homoeroticism
Homoeroticism refers to the erotic attraction between members of the same sex, either male–male or female–female , most especially as it is depicted or manifested in the visual arts and literature. It can also be found in performative forms; from theatre to the theatricality of uniformed movements...
. He currently lives in the seaside town of Zushi, several kilometers south of Yokohama
Yokohama
is the capital city of Kanagawa Prefecture and the second largest city in Japan by population after Tokyo and most populous municipality of Japan. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kantō region of the main island of Honshu...
, Japan.
Early life
Born in 1937 in the rural southern island of KyushuKyushu
is the third largest island of Japan and most southwesterly of its four main islands. Its alternate ancient names include , , and . The historical regional name is referred to Kyushu and its surrounding islands....
, Takahashi spent his early years living in the countryside of Japan. As Takahashi describes in his memoirs published in 1970, his father, a factory worker in a metal plant, died of pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
when Takahashi was one hundred and five days old, leaving his mother to fend for herself in the world. Taking advantage of the opportunities presented by the expanding Japanese empire, she left Takahashi and his sisters with their grandparents in the rural town of Nōgata and went to Tientsin in mainland China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
to be with a lover.
Due to his grandparents’ poverty, Takahashi spent much time with extended family and other neighbors. Especially important to him during this time was an uncle that served a pivotal figure in Takahashi’s development, serving as a masculine role model and object of love. Again, however, historical fate intervened, and the uncle, whom Takahashi later described in many early poems, was sent to the battlefield in Burma, where illness claimed his life.
After Takahashi’s mother returned from the mainland, they went to live in the port of Moji
Moji-ku, Kitakyushu
is a ward of Kitakyūshū, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. It is the former city of Moji which was one of five cities merged to create Kitakyūshū in 1963. It faces the city of Shimonoseki across the Kanmon Straits between Honshū and Kyūshū....
, just as the bombings of the mainland by the Allied powers
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
intensified. Takahashi’s memoirs describe that although he hated the war, World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
provided a chaotic and frightening circus for his fellow classmates, who would go to gawk at the wreckage of the B-29s that fell from the sky and to watch ships blow up at sea, destroyed by naval mine
Naval mine
A naval mine is a self-contained explosive device placed in water to destroy surface ships or submarines. Unlike depth charges, mines are deposited and left to wait until they are triggered by the approach of, or contact with, an enemy vessel...
s. Takahashi writes that when the war came to an end, he felt a great sense of relief.
In his memoirs and interviews, Takahashi has mentioned that in the time he spent with his schoolmates, he became increasingly aware of his own sexual preference for men
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
. This became a common subject in the first book of poetry he published in 1959.
Early Writing
After a bout of tuberculosis, Takahashi graduated from the Fukuoka University of EducationFukuoka University of Education
is a national university in Munakata, Fukuoka, Japan. The predecessor of the school was founded in 1876, and it was chartered as a university in 1949...
, and in 1962 moved to Tokyo. For many years, he worked at an advertising company, but in the meantime, he wrote a good deal of poetry. His first book to receive national attention was , an anthology published in 1964 that describes male-male erotic love
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
in bold and direct language. A laudatory review from the critic Jun Etō
Jun Eto
was a Japanese literary critic, active in the Shōwa and early Heisei period Japan.- Early life :Etō was born in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo; his father was a banker, and his grandfather was an admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy. His mother died when he was four years old, and always sickly...
appeared in the daily newspaper Asahi shimbun
Asahi Shimbun
The is the second most circulated out of the five national newspapers in Japan. Its circulation, which was 7.96 million for its morning edition and 3.1 million for its evening edition as of June 2010, was second behind that of Yomiuri Shimbun...
with Takahashi’s photograph—an unusual instance of a poet’s photograph included in the paper’s survey of literature.
About the same time, Takahashi sent the collection to the novelist Yukio Mishima
Yukio Mishima
was the pen name of , a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor and film director, also remembered for his ritual suicide by seppuku after a failed coup d'état...
who contacted him and offered to use his name to help promote Takahashi’s work. The two shared a close relationship and friendship that lasted until Mishima’s suicide in 1970. Other close friends Takahashi made about this time include Tatsuhiko Shibusawa
Tatsuhiko Shibusawa
was the pen name of Shibusawa Tatsuo, a novelist, art critic, and translator of French literature active during the Shōwa period of Japan. Shibusawa wrote many short stories and novels based on French literature and Japanese classics...
who translated the Marquis de Sade
Marquis de Sade
Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade was a French aristocrat, revolutionary politician, philosopher, and writer famous for his libertine sexuality and lifestyle...
into Japanese, the surreal poet Chimako Tada who shared Takahashi's interest in classical Greece, the poet Shigeo Washisu who was also interested in the classics and the existential ramifications of homoeroticism. With the latter two writers, Takahashi cooperated to create the literary journal named after Plato’s famous dialogue
Symposium (Plato)
The Symposium is a philosophical text by Plato dated c. 385–380 BCE. It concerns itself at one level with the genesis, purpose and nature of love....
. This interest in eroticism and existentialism, in turn, is a reflection of a larger existential
Existentialism
Existentialism is a term applied to a school of 19th- and 20th-century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject—not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual...
trend in the literature and culture of Japan during the 1960s and 1970s.
Homoeroticism remained an important them in his poetry written in free verse through the 1970s, including the long poem , which the publisher Winston Leyland has called “the great gay poem of the 20th century.” Many of these early works have been translated into English by Hiroaki Sato and reprinted in the collection Partings at Dawn: An Anthology of Japanese Gay Literature.
About the same time, Takahashi started writing prose. In 1970, he published Twelve Views from the Distance about his early life and the novella about his own erotic awakening. In 1972, he wrote , a surrealistic novella inspired by his own experiences during a forty-day trip to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in which Donald Richie
Donald Richie
Donald Richie is an American-born author who has written about the Japanese people and Japanese cinema. Although he considers himself only a writer, Richie has directed many experimental films, the first when he was 17...
led him through the gay, underground spots of the city. In 1974, he released , a homoerotic and often extremely humorous reworking of a legend of Sudhana
Sudhana
Sudhanakumâra , mainly known as Sudhana, translated as Child of Wealth, is the main protagonist in the next-to-last and longest chapter of the Avatamsaka Sutra. Sudhana appears in Buddhist, Taoist and folk stories; in most of them he is one of the acolytes of the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara and is...
found in the Buddhist classic Avatamsaka Sutra
Avatamsaka Sutra
The is one of the most influential Mahayana sutras of East Asian Buddhism. The title is rendered in English as Flower Garland Sutra, Flower Adornment Sutra, or Flower Ornament Scripture....
.
Later Literary Career
Around 1975, Takahashi's writing began to explore a wider range of themes, such as the destiny of mankind, Takahashi’s travels to many nations around the world, and relationships in the modern world. It was with this broadening of themes that Takahashi’s poetry began to earn an increasingly broad audience.As with his early writing, Takahashi’s later writing shows a high degree of erudition, including a thorough awareness of the history of world literature and art. In fact, many of his collections published from the 1980s onward, include poems either dedicated to or about important authors around the world, including Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo , known as Jorge Luis Borges , was an Argentine writer, essayist, poet and translator born in Buenos Aires. In 1914 his family moved to Switzerland where he attended school, receiving his baccalauréat from the Collège de Genève in 1918. The family...
, Jean Genet
Jean Genet
Jean Genet was a prominent and controversial French novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and political activist. Early in his life he was a vagabond and petty criminal, but later took to writing...
, Ezra Pound
Ezra Pound
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound was an American expatriate poet and critic and a major figure in the early modernist movement in poetry...
, and Chimako Tada,—each a homage to an important literary predecessor. For instance, in 2010, Takahashi has also produced a slim book of poems to accompany a 2010 exhibition of the work of the American artist Joseph Cornell
Joseph Cornell
Joseph Cornell was an American artist and sculptor, one of the pioneers and most celebrated exponents of assemblage...
.
Although Takahashi has been most visibly active in the realm of free verse poetry, he has also written traditional Japanese verse (both tanka
Waka (poetry)
Waka or Yamato uta is a genre of classical Japanese verse and one of the major genres of Japanese literature...
and haiku
Haiku
' , plural haiku, is a very short form of Japanese poetry typically characterised by three qualities:* The essence of haiku is "cutting"...
poetry), novels, Nō
NO
NO, N.O., No, or No. may refer to:* One of a pair of English words, yes and no, which signal confirmation or a negative response respectively.- Geographical locations :* Norway, ISO 3166-1 country code* Lake No, Sudan...
and Kyōgen
Kyogen
is a form of traditional Japanese comic theater. It developed alongside Noh, was performed along with Noh as an intermission of sorts between Noh acts, on the same Noh stage, and retains close links to Noh in the modern day; therefore, it is sometimes designated Noh-kyōgen...
plays, reworkings of ancient Greek dramas and epic poetry, countless works of literary criticism, and even a libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
for an opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
by the contemporary Japanese composer Akira Miyoshi
Akira Miyoshi
Akira Miyoshi is a Japanese composer.Miyoshi was a child prodigy on piano, studying with Kozaburo Hirai and Tomojiro Ikenouchi. He studied French literature at the University of Tokyo, and then at the Paris Conservatory with Henri Challan and Raymond Gallois-Montbrun from 1955 to 1957. He was...
.
Since the broadening of Takahashi’s themes in the 1970s and his retirement from the advertising agency in the 1980s, the pace of his publication has only increased. He has been the recipient of a number of important literary prizes in Japan, such as the Rekitei Prize, the Yomiuri Literary Prize, the Takami Jun Prize, the Modern Poetry Hanatsubaki Prize, and the Shika Bungakukan Prize, and in 2000, he earned the prestigious Kunshō award for his contributions to modern Japanese literature.
Takahashi presently lives in the seaside city of Zushi, ten kilometers from Yokohama
Yokohama
is the capital city of Kanagawa Prefecture and the second largest city in Japan by population after Tokyo and most populous municipality of Japan. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kantō region of the main island of Honshu...
. His poems have been translated into languages as diverse as Chinese
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
, Norwegian
Norwegian language
Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants .These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language...
, Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, and Afrikaans
Afrikaans
Afrikaans is a West Germanic language, spoken natively in South Africa and Namibia. It is a daughter language of Dutch, originating in its 17th century dialects, collectively referred to as Cape Dutch .Afrikaans is a daughter language of Dutch; see , , , , , .Afrikaans was historically called Cape...
. He frequently gives readings and talks around the world.
See also
- Gay literature
- Queer literature
- Gay poetry
- Queer poetry
Videos of readings
- Youtube video showing Takahashi giving a reading in 1995 at the International Poetry Festival in MedellínMedellínMedellín , officially the Municipio de Medellín or Municipality of Medellín, is the second largest city in Colombia. It is in the Aburrá Valley, one of the more northerly of the Andes in South America. It has a population of 2.3 million...
, ColombiaColombiaColombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
. Subtitles in Spanish. - Youtube video showing Takahashi giving a reading in 2008 at the Tokyo Poetry Festival.
- A first Youtube video showing Takahashi giving a reading in 2009 at the International Poetry Nights in Hong KongHong KongHong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
. Takahashi's reading begins around 2:50 in the video. No subtitles. - A second Youtube video showing Takahashi giving a reading in 2009 at the International Poetry Nights in Hong KongHong KongHong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
. No subtitles.
Poems Online
- Translations of five of Takahashi’s poems by Jeffrey AnglesJeffrey Anglesis an American scholar of modern Japanese literature and an award-winning literary translator of modern and contemporary Japanese poetry and fiction. He is an associate professor of Japanese language and Japanese literature at Western Michigan University.-Biography:Angles was born in Columbus, Ohio...
. - Translation of the poem "Myself with Motorcycle" by Hiroaki Sato. (Click on the grey Japanese title for the original Japanese text.)
Excerpts from the Memoir Twelve Views from the Distance
Articles
- Article at GLBTQ, an online encyclopedia of gay culture about some of Takahashi’s early homoerotic literature.
- Comments about translating Takahashi by Hiroaki Sato.
- Japanese-language Wikipedia article Contains a list in Japanese of some of Takahashi's publications.