Japanese Literary Awards

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Tsuneari Fukuda

ふくだ つねあり

Fukuda Tsuneari

Aliases: こうそん

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1912-08-25 （Komagome Higashikatamachi, Hongō, Tokyo (now Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan)）
Died
1994-11-20 （Tokai University Oiso Hospital, Oiso, Nakagun, Kanagawa, Japan） age 82
Nationality
Japan
Languages
Japanese
Religion
Buddhism
Residence History
Komagome Higashikatamachi, Hongō, Tokyo (birthplace) → Oiso, Nakagun, Kanagawa (later residence, place of death)

Career

Occupations
critic, translator, playwright, director, writer, university professor
Active Years
1937-1994
Affiliations
Chair, Modern Theatre Association, Standing Director, Japan Cultural Council, Member, Japan Art Academy, Professor, Tama Art University, Professor, Kyoto Sangyo University
Memberships
Member, Japan Art Academy, Chair, Modern Theatre Association
Influenced By
William Shakespeare, D. H. Lawrence, G. K. Chesterton, T. S. Eliot, Hideo Kobayashi, Makoto Tokieda
Influenced
Masao Maruyama, Takaaki Yoshimoto, Tadashi Matsubara, Akira Kume, Yasuo Nakamura, Kanji Nishio, Michio Tsuchiya, Susumu Nishibe, Kojin Karatani, Midori Nakano, Yosuke Hamazaki

Education

Tokyo Imperial University (now University of Tokyo)
Faculty of Letters / Department of English Literature
Degree: 文学士
Period: 1933-1936
Year of Graduation: 1936
Country: Japan
Graduation thesis: 'Moral Problems in D. H. Lawrence'

Awards

Kishida Drama Award
1955
Organization: Kishida Drama Award Committee
Result: 受賞
Yomiuri Literary Prize
1961
Work: My Kokugo Classroom
Organization: Yomiuri Shimbun
Result: 受賞
Seiun Award (Film & Theatre Category)
1976
Work: Staa (production; direction)
Category: 映画・演劇
Organization: Seiun Award Committee
Result: 受賞
Kikuchi Kan Prize
1980
Organization: Kikuchi Kan Prize Committee
Result: 受賞
Japan Art Academy Prize
1981
Organization: Japan Art Academy
Result: 受賞

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

What Is Art?

1950 Essay/Critical

A collection of essays on the nature of art and its relation to society.

art theorycivilizationexpression

Questions Concerning Peace Theory

1955 Essay/Critical

A critical essay addressing postwar peace movements and progressive cultural arguments.

political criticismcultural critiquepostwar thought

Human Beings: The Dramatic

1956 Essay/Critical

Develops a theory of human nature originating from theatrical and dramatic perspectives.

human studiestheatredramatism

My Kokugo Classroom

1960 Language Criticism/Essay

A collection arguing for historical kana orthography and criticizing language reform in Japan.

language reformhistorical kana orthographylanguage policy

Introduction to Theatre

1981 Theatre/Introduction

An accessible introduction to theatre covering basics of directing and audience-actor relations.

theatre educationdirecting theoryaudience studies

My Love Classroom

1959 Essays/Critical

A collection of essays and reflections on love and relationships.

lovehuman relationships

Kitty Typhoon

1950 Play

One of his notable plays, portraying characters' psyches and social context.

playsocial commentarycharacter psychology

The Mysterious Woman

1954 Novel (newspaper serial)

A novel serialized in a newspaper, known as his only serialized fiction in a paper.

novelserialportrayal of people

Bibliography

  • The Attitude of the Writer
  • The Fate of Modernity
  • What Is Art?
  • Questions Concerning Peace Theory
  • Human Beings: The Dramatic
  • My Love Classroom
  • My Kokugo Classroom
  • Introduction to Theatre
  • The Mysterious Woman
  • Kitty Typhoon

Translations by Author

  • Hamlet (William Shakespeare)
  • Macbeth (William Shakespeare)
  • Othello (William Shakespeare)
  • A Midsummer Night's Dream (William Shakespeare)
  • The Old Man and the Sea (Ernest Hemingway)
  • The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
polemical and rhetorical essayistic styleuse of historical kana orthographytheatrical metaphors and dramaturgical structure
Recurring Motifs
theatre and human naturelanguage and communityconflict between tradition and modernization

Health

  • Pneumonia
    1994年11月（晩年）
    Hospitalized and died due to illness

Legacy

Tsuneari Fukuda was a prominent postwar Japanese critic, playwright and translator who established a conservative intellectual stance through literary criticism, translation and theatre directing. His writings on language reform and modernization of theatre provoked wide debate and influenced later thinkers and theatre practitioners.

Academic Societies

  • Modern Theatre Association
  • Japan Art Academy

In Popular Culture

  • Host of a political talk show 'Fukuda Tsuneari no Sesō o Kiru' on Fuji TV (1977–1979)

Quotes

  • For me, neither present Tokyo nor even prewar Tokyo is my hometown. My hometown is the Tokyo before the Great Kanto Earthquake. In other words, I am a person who has lost his hometown.
    Source: 'Tabi' — essay 'Furusato to Tabi' (collection) (1978)
  • People can only relate through production; consumption plunges people into loneliness.
    Source: "On the Consumption Boom" (1961)

Trivia

  • His name is often read in on'yomi as 'Kōson'.
  • Posthumous Buddhist name: 'Jissōin Kōson Nishin Koji' (実相院恆存日信居士).
  • He appeared as a special defense counsel in the 1951 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' obscenity trial in Japan.
  • 'The Mysterious Woman' was a newspaper serial and is one of his few extended fictional works.