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Hiroshi Ishida

いしだ ひろし

Ishida Hiroshi

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1930-10-27 （Nisaki, Konose Village, Kyoto District, Fukuoka Prefecture (now Kanda Town), Japan）
Died
2011-02-24 （Kumamoto City, Japan） age 80
Nationality
Japan
Languages
Japanese
Residence History
Nisaki, Konose Village, Kyoto District, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan → Ube City, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan → Nakatsu City, Oita Prefecture, Japan → Kumamoto City, Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan

Career

Occupations
tanka poet
Active Years
1954-2011
Influenced By
Takuboku Ishikawa, Mokichi Saito
Influenced
Ei Agitsu, Kounori Shimada, Rika Hamana

Education

Fukuoka Prefectural Toyotsu Middle School (old system; left school)
Period: 〜退学
Country: Japan
Left the old-system middle school due to misconduct (did not complete)

Awards

22nd Tanka Kenkyu Prize
1985
Work: "Tebiyabi" (series of 30 tanka)
Organization: Tanka Kenkyu (journal/organization)
Result: 受賞
24th Kumamoto Nichinichi Literary Prize
1978
Work: Tanka collection 'Roukan'
Organization: Kumamoto Nichinichi Shimbun
Result: 受賞
Mirai Annual Prize
1965
Organization: Tanka magazine 'Mirai'
Result: 受賞
Kadokawa Tanka Prize (selected)
1955
Organization: Kadokawa
Result: 入選

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Songs of Uselessness

1965 Tanka collection

Debut tanka collection. Poems with buraiha-like tone, depicting physical labor and the harshness of daily life.

manual laborburaiha-influenced expressioneveryday working-class life

Roukan

1979 Tanka collection

Fourth collection. Contains stark tanka grounded in regional life and labor; won the Kumamoto Nichinichi Literary Prize.

regional identitylaborloneliness

Old Monkey

2002 Tanka collection

Late-period collection. Poems dealing with aging, memory, and reflections on life.

agingremembrancelife

Hiroshi Ishida Collected Poems (Modern Tanka Library)

1990 Tanka collection

Collected representative works with commentary.

tradition and modernitylabor and daily life

Bibliography

  • Muyo no Uta (Hakugyoku Shobo) 1965
  • Urami (Ga Tanka-kai) 1973
  • Semeseishu (Tanka Shimbunsha) 1976
  • Roukan (Tanka Shimbunsha) 1979
  • Chokan-shu (Matsushita Shorin) 1981
  • Teikei no Shimo (Kasho Ga Tanka-kai) 1982
  • Keiroku (Fushiki Shoin) 1983
  • Tekiteki (Gendai Shobo Shinsha) 1986
  • Kyushu no Kasa (Sunagoya Shobo) 1989
  • Collected Poems (Modern Tanka Library, Sunagoya Shobo) 1990
  • Ketsuketsu (Sunagoya Shobo) 1992
  • Osaru (Sunagoya Shobo) 2002
  • Shuntou (Sunagoya Shobo) 2004
  • Heihan Kahen - Collected Poems 2006
  • Continued Collected Poems (Modern Tanka Library) 2008
  • Rujin-shu - Collected Poems 2008
  • Kantan-sen (Sunagoya Shobo) 2010
  • Muyo no Uta (First Collection Library, reprint) 2013

Style & Themes

Literary Style
buraiha-influenced hard-edged expressionworking-class, earthy voicefrank and direct tanka
Recurring Motifs
manual laborregional landscapesaging and solitude

Health

  • intracerebral hemorrhage
    2011-02-24
    Died of an intracerebral hemorrhage on 2011-02-24

Legacy

Hiroshi Ishida was a tanka poet known for buraiha-influenced poems grounded in manual labor and regional life. He is recognized for introducing a working-class perspective into postwar tanka and for mentoring several later poets.

Trivia

  • He worked in over 40 different jobs, experiences that influenced his writing.
  • He was expelled from the old-system middle school for misconduct.
  • He passed naval flight preparatory training but the program did not proceed due to Japan's defeat in 1945.