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Taruho Inagaki

いながき たるほ

Inagaki Taruho

Aliases: イナガキタルホ / 多留保 / INAGUAQUI TAROUPHO
Pen Names: Inagaki Taruho（Pen name used for early publications such as 'One Thousand and One-Second Stories'）

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1900-12-26 （Senba, Osaka City, Osaka Prefecture, Japan）
Died
1977-10-25 （Kyoto Daiichi Red Cross Hospital, Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto City, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan） age 76
Nationality
Japan
Languages
Japanese
Residence History
Senba, Osaka City, Osaka Prefecture (birthplace) → Akashi (early childhood, lived with grandparents) → Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture (grew up) → Tokyo (moved for aviation training and literary activity) → Kyoto City, Kyoto Prefecture (later life)

Career

Occupations
Novelist, Essayist, Poet
Active Years
1920-1977
Influenced By
Haruo Satō, Lord Dunsany
Influenced
Tatsuhiko Shibusawa, Yukio Mishima, Shinichi Hoshi, Tatsumi Hijikata, Taneura Toshihiro, Seigo Matsuoka, Hiroshi Aramata, Mutsuo Takahashi
Nominations
4th Tanizaki Jun'ichiro Prize (nominated)

Education

Kwansei Gakuin (secondary division)
Secondary division
Period: 1914-1919
Year of Graduation: 1919
Country: Japan
Founded the literary circle magazine 'Hikou Gaho' while a student; classmates included Ima Tokoh (Ima Toko).

Awards

Sakka Prize (4th)
1960
Result: 受賞
Japan Literary Award (1st)
1969
Work: The Aesthetics of Boy Love
Result: 受賞

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

One Thousand and One-Second Stories

1923 Short story collection (fragmentary prose)

A collection of poetic, fragmentary short pieces. Featuring motifs such as celestial bodies, machines, and flight, it established Inagaki's distinctive worldview.

abstractioncelestial bodiesflightmachinesfantasy
Translations
  • One Thousand and One-Second Stories (English translation: Sun & Moon Press, 1998; Green Integer, 2011)

The Aesthetics of Boy Love

1968 Essay / Criticism

An essay combining wide-ranging references and personal experience on the subject of boy love. Valued as a unique spiritual theory of eroticism beyond a simple treatise on sexuality.

boy loveerotic theorymemoir

Astronomical Fetishism

1928 Essays / Short stories

A collection of short pieces and essays centered on fascination with celestial bodies and the cosmos; astronomical motifs play a central role.

celestial bodiescosmologyobsession

Vita Machinicalis (Vita Machinica)

1948 Essay/Collected pieces

A compilation produced by arranging and revising works from the 1930s onward; strongly reflects Inagaki's aesthetics and views on machines.

machinesaestheticsrevision

Bibliography

  • One Thousand and One-Second Stories
  • Nose Glasses
  • The Shop That Sells Stars
  • Tales of the Third Hemisphere
  • Astronomical Fetishism
  • Mountain Wind Charm
  • Airplane Stories: The Sky of Japan
  • Astronomical Japan: Scholars of the Stars
  • Miroku
  • Introduction to Cosmology
  • Akashi
  • Vita Machinicalis
  • The Charm of the Devil
  • They
  • The Aesthetics of Boy Love
  • My 'Eureka'
  • Tokyo Flight
  • Vanilla and Manila
  • The Airplane Guys
  • Beginning with the Wright Brothers
  • Picture Book: The Eros of Backflow
  • Manifesto of Machine Studies: Ground-Crawling Airplanes and Flying Steam Trains
  • Tarho Cosmology
  • Lead Bullets
  • In Search of Pate's Red Rooster
  • Violet ANUS
  • The Blue Box and the Red Skull
  • The Sewing Machine and the Bat Umbrella
  • Esotericism at the End Stages
  • The Heavenly Tribe: Currently in Communication
  • Lord Corinton Appears
  • Late Warabi
  • Taruho Constellation Meteor Shower
  • Morality in Men
  • Taruho Fragment
  • The Age of Human Dolls
  • More Buddhas Than the Sands of the Ganges
  • Tarubo Edition: Encyclopedia of Male Love

Translations of Works

  • One Thousand and One-Second Stories (English translation)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
modernist fragmentationpoetic prosefantastical and symbolic imagery
Recurring Motifs
flightcelestial bodiesmachinesobjectsboy loveabstraction

Health

  • Alcohol dependence
    1930年代頃〜
    Caused stagnation in writing and led to financial hardship
  • Nicotine addiction (smoking)
    1930年代頃〜
    Imposed strain on health and affected productivity
  • Colon cancer (final illness)
    1977年（入院・最終期）
    Hospitalized for colon cancer, developed acute pneumonia and died

Legacy

Inagaki Taruho is known for a unique fusion of modernism and fantasy, exerting a distinct influence on Japanese literature after the interwar period. He was re-evaluated in later years, with collected works published and renewed interest among younger readers.

Museums

  • Hyogo Museum of Literature (related exhibits) Hyogo Prefecture (related exhibits)

Academic Societies

  • Scholarly and fan societies focused on fantasy literature

Archives

  • Collections of materials related to Inagaki Taruho (various editions and collected works locations)

In Popular Culture

  • Taruho boom following publication of 'Inagaki Taruho Complete Works' from 1969
  • International attention increased with English translations and reprints of 'One Thousand and One-Second Stories'

Quotes

  • A children's-tale astronomer — a celluloid aesthete
    Source: Haruo Satō (preface to 'One Thousand and One-Second Stories') (1923)
  • Inagaki, sitting on a large crescent moon — even if I wanted to thank you for the book, unless I were a clockwork moth I could not climb your throne.
    Source: Ryūnosuke Akutagawa (comment)

Trivia

  • As a youth he aspired to be an aviator and applied to the Japan Aviation School but was barred from flight training due to severe myopia.
  • Founded the student magazine 'Hikou Gaho' during his school years.
  • Experienced periods of financial hardship and substance dependency (alcohol, smoking) that affected his productivity in the 1930s onward.
  • Reevaluation in 1968, supported by figures like Yukio Mishima, led to publication of collected works and a Taruho revival.
  • His posthumous Buddhist name is said to be 'Shaku Kokuu' (釈虚空).