Saneatsu Mushanokōji

Saneatsu Mushanokōji
Saneatsu Mushanokōji in 1956
Native name	武者小路 実篤
Born	(1885-05-12)12 May 1885 Tokyo, Japan
Died	9 April 1976(1976-04-09) (aged 90) Tokyo, Japan
Occupation	Novelist, playwright
Language	Japanese
Nationality	Japan
Literary movement	Shirakaba Idealism
Notable works	Good-Natured Person (1910) Friendship (1920)
Japanese name
Kanji	武者小路 実篤(實篤)
Hiragana	むしゃのこうじ さねあつ
Transcriptions Romanization Mushanokōji Saneatsu

Saneatsu Mushanokōji (武者小路 実篤(實篤), Mushanokōji Saneatsu, May 12, 1885 – April 9, 1976) was a Japanese novelist, playwright, poet, artist, and philosopher active during the late

of Japan. Later on in life he requested that the pronunciation of his surname (as far as was concerned) be changed from the usual Mushanokōji, to Mushakōji, but without much success. He was nicknamed Musha and Futo-o by his colleagues.

Early life

Born in

".

Literary career

As a key member of Shirakaba, Mushanokōji in 1910 published his work Omedetaki Hito (お目出たき人, Good Natured Person) in its magazine, Shirakaba. This was followed by Seken shirazu (世間知らず, Babe in the Woods), in 1912. Through the medium of Shirakaba, Mushanokōji began moving away from the Tolstoy ideal of self-sacrifice, and promoted his philosophy of humanism as an alternative to then-popular form of naturalism. While his humanism borrowed some elements from naturalism, he in general believed that humanity controlled its own destiny through the assertion of will, whereas the naturalists tended to see the individual as powerless and desperate against forces beyond personal control.

With the outbreak of World War I, Mushanokōji turned again to Tolstoy for inspiration and for the further development of his humanitarianism philosophy. During this time, he published Sono imōto (その妹, His Sister) (1915), a play involving a choice between self-love and love for mankind. He relocated to what is now part of Abiko, Chiba in 1916, together with Shiga Naoya and Yanagi Sōetsu.

In 1918, Mushanokōji took the next step in the development of his philosophy by moving to the mountains of

Aru otoko (或る男, A Certain Man) (1923), and in the play Ningen banzai (人間万歳, Three Cheers for Mankind) (1922). The commune also published its own literary magazine, Atarashiki-mura. In the 1920s, while running the commune, Mushanokōji was very prolific in his literary output. However, Mushanokōji tired of the social experiment and left the village in 1926; a dam project forced it to relocate to Saitama Prefecture in 1939, where it still exists.

After the

, about the 19th century farm technologist and agricultural philosopher.

Through the 1930s and 1940s, he faded from the literary world. Encouraged by his older brother

.

Mushanokōji made a literary comeback with his novel Shinri sensei ^[jp] (真理先生, Teacher of Truth) (1949–1950). He was awarded the Order of Culture in 1951, and became a member of the Japan Art Academy in 1952.

Mushanokōji lived to the age of 90. He died at the

, where he lived from 1955 to 1976 has been turned into a memorial museum.

Ancestry

See also

• Japanese literature
• List of Japanese authors

References

• Mortimer, Maya. Meeting the Sensei: The Role of the Master in Shirakaba Writers. Brill Academic Publishers (2000).
  ISBN 90-04-11655-9
• Watanabe, Kanji. Mushanokoji Saneatsu (Jinbutsu shoshi taikei). Kinokuniya Shoten (1984).
  ISBN 4-8169-0328-3
  (Japanese)

External links

• Japanese Literature home page
• English guide to Memorial Hall & Saneatsu Park
• Memorial Hall (in Japanese)
• Saneatsu Mushanokoji's grave
• National Diet Library home page
• Yuichi Mori:apprentice
• Works by Saneatsu Mushanokoji at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Saneatsu Mushanokōji at Internet Archive