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Gotō Shigeru

ごとう しげる

Gotō Shigeru

Pen Names: Ishikure Shigeru（Birth name / name used in early publications）, Kosugi Shigeru（One of the pseudonyms used in his early career）

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1900-12-05 （Kyobashi, Tokyo, Japan）
Died
2003-12-19 （Minato, Tokyo, Japan） age 103
Nationality
Japan
Languages
Japanese

Career

Occupations
tanka poet, economic historian, university professor
Active Years
1920-1998
Affiliations
Osaka University of Commerce (faculty), Senshu University (professor), Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (professor), Meiji University (professor), Asia University (professor), University of Hawaiʻi (visiting professor)
Influenced By
Shimaki Akahiko, Kinoshita Rigen, Sasaki Nobutsuna
Influenced
Later poets of the Risshun tanka circle

Education

Tokyo Imperial University (University of Tokyo)
Faculty of Economics / Economics
Degree: 博士（経済学）
Period: 1921-1949
Year of Graduation: 1949
Country: Japan
Awarded PhD for research on Robert Owen

Awards

Order of the Sacred Treasure, Third Class
1974
Organization: Government of Japan
Result: 受章
Modern Tanka Grand Prize
1981
Work: 'Hiraku', 'Far Day's Mist', 'The Dark Long Night'
Organization: Modern Tanka Poets Association
Result: 受賞

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Ishikure Shigeru: Collected Tanka

1929 Tanka collection

Early collection containing youthful poems that show his inclination toward tanka reform.

tanka innovationnaturesocial critique

Nautical Chart

1940 Tanka collection

A tanka collection published after his return to poetry; includes poems on wartime landscapes and inner life.

wartimeintrospectionsea

Hiraku

1979 Tanka collection

One of his late representative works, meditating on everyday life and time from a mature perspective.

timememoryeveryday life

Far Day's Mist

1980 Tanka collection

A collection centered on recollection of the past; poems are suffused with nostalgia and historical awareness.

nostalgiamemoryhistory

The Dark Long Night

1980 Tanka collection

A collection addressing dark times and the uncertainty of being.

anxietyexistencenight

Definitive Collected Tanka of Gotō Shigeru

1990 Collected works

A definitive collected edition covering poems from across his life.

retrospectivelife

Bibliography

  • Robert Owen (1934)
  • How to Write Academic Papers (1934)
  • Social History of the British Industrial Revolution (1949)
  • Economic History (1951)
  • Bibliography of Robert Owen (1974)
  • Ishikure Shigeru: Collected Tanka (1929)
  • Nautical Chart (1940)
  • Hiraku (1979)
  • Far Day's Mist (1980)
  • The Dark Long Night (1980)
  • Dreams Abound (1982)
  • Definitive Collected Tanka of Gotō Shigeru (1990)
  • The Final Pietà (1996)

Translations by Author

  • Robert Owen Autobiography (co-translation, 1928)
  • Robert Owen Autobiography (solo translation, later Iwanami Bunko)
  • News from Utopia (William Morris translation, 1971)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
innovative and analytical tanka style associated with the new tanka movementpoetry informed by Marxist-influenced critical perspectives
Recurring Motifs
time and memorynature and the seahistorical consciousnessindividual interiority and society

Legacy

Gotō Shigeru was both a tanka poet and an economic historian who played a role in tanka reform movements and academic scholarship. His late works received praise and he was honored with awards such as the Modern Tanka Grand Prize and the Order of the Sacred Treasure.

Academic Societies

  • Modern Tanka Poets Association

Archives

  • National Diet Library (holds works and theses)
  • University libraries (Meiji University, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, etc.)

Trivia

  • He once instructed Crown Prince Akihito in composing waka/tanka.
  • Born in 1900 and died in 2003 at the age of 103, he was a long-lived tanka poet.
  • He co-led the Risshun tanka circle with his wife, Gotō Miyoko.