Nobutsuna Sasaki

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Nobutsuna Sasaki
tanka
poetry
Literary movementChikuhakukai
Notable awardsOrder of Culture (1937)
In this Japanese name, the surname is Sasaki.

Nobutsuna Sasaki (佐佐木 信綱, Sasaki Nobutsuna, 8 July 1872 – 2 December 1963) was a

Shōwa period
of Japan.

Early life

Sasaki was born in what is now part of

Tokyo Imperial University, he followed his father's wish and decided to devote his life to waka
poetry, both by researching old verses and by composing new verses himself.

Literary career

In 1894 Sasaki published a lengthy patriotic poem Shina seibatsu no Uta (“The Song of the Conquest of China”), on the occasion of the start of the First Sino-Japanese War. The poem was extremely popular, and one of its lyrics comparing falling cherry blossoms to Japanese soldiers falling in battle for the emperor became a common symbolic phrase through the end of World War II.[1] Sasaki founded a

Kawada Jun, Kinoshita Rigen and Katayama Hiroko
. The magazine is still in existence today as Japan's oldest poetry monthly.

In 1902, Sasaki made a visit to China, travelling up the

Yangtze River and visiting Hangzhou and Suzhou.[2]

Although some of his earliest works were influenced by

Ministry of Education to work on a modern commentary to the Man'yōshū . Sasaki worked together with his father on these efforts, and published a comprehensive survey of medieval waka (Wakashi no kenkyu, “Studies in Japanese Poetry”, 1915). He later led a team of scholars which published a concordance of the Man'yōshū (“Kohan Man'yōshū”, 1924–1925), which is the accepted basis for modern Man'yōshū studies.[3]

In 1934, Sasaki was made a member of the prestigious Imperial Academy. He was the first person to be awarded the Order of Culture by the Japanese government in 1937 and also became a member of the Japan Art Academy that year. He was subsequently appointed purveyor of poetry to the Imperial Family, and a judge at the annual Utakai Hajime poetry reading contests. He was also a tutor to Empress Teimei and other members of the imperial household on the composition of poetry.

Sasaki relocated from

Atami, Shizuoka, a hot spring resort
further down the coast.

Sasaki's grave is at the Yanaka Cemetery, in Tokyo. Following his death, a memorial museum containing some of his manuscripts was built on the site of his former home in Suzuka city, Mie prefecture, and the summer home he maintained in Atami, Shizuoka has also been preserved by the local governments.

See also

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Nobutsuna Sasaki.

Notes

  1. ISBN 978-0226620688
    . pages 135, 151
  2. ISBN 0804725675
    . page 252
  3. ISBN 978-9004264540
    .
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