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Yoshiro Ishihara

いしはら よしろう

Ishihara Yoshiro

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1915-11-11 （Toi (Tafugun), Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan (now Izu City)）
Died
1977-11-14 （Kamifukuoka, Saitama Prefecture, Japan (now Fujimino)） age 62
Nationality
Japan
Languages
Japanese
Religion
Protestant Christianity Baptized in 1938
Residence History
Tokyo, Japan → Toi (Izu), Shizuoka, Japan → Kamifukuoka (now Fujimino), Saitama, Japan

Career

Occupations
poet, essayist, waka poet, haiku poet
Active Years
1954-1977
Memberships
Japan Poets Association (president 1975–1977)
Influenced By
Tamio Hojo (Hojo Tamio), Michizo Tachihara, Viktor Frankl, Varlam Shalamov, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Influenced
Yo Hemmi (Henmi Yo)

Education

Tokyo School of Foreign Languages (prewar)
German Department / German studies
Period: 1934-1938
Year of Graduation: 1938
Country: Japan
Studied Marxism and Esperanto while enrolled
Kogyokusha Middle School (prewar)
Period: 1928-1933
Year of Graduation: 1933
Country: Japan
Completed middle-school level education

Awards

H Prize (14th)
1964
Work: The Homecoming of Sancho Panza
Organization: H Prize selection committee (contemporary poetry newcomer award)
Result: winner
Fujimura Memorial Rekitei Prize (11th)
1973
Work: Homesickness and the Sea
Organization: Rekitei Prize Committee
Result: winner

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

The Homecoming of Sancho Panza

1963 poetry collection

Debut poetry collection reflecting the disorientation of a returnee and the influence of Siberian internment experiences.

nostalgiainternmentsilencerebirth

Reference Point

1972 poetry collection

Collection of poems rooted in internment and postwar experiences.

memoryloss of languagedeath of others

Homesickness and the Sea

1972 essays

Essay collection of reflections and recollections on internment; one of his representative prose works.

internment recollectionssilence vs. denunciationhomesickness

Bibliography

  • The Homecoming of Sancho Panza
  • Ishihara Yoshiro Poetry Collection
  • Reference Point
  • A River Running to the Sea
  • Compulsion toward the Everyday
  • Homesickness and the Sea
  • From the Sea of Renunciation
  • Hojo
  • Ashikaga
  • Even the Full Moon

Style & Themes

Literary Style
silent, introspective styleconcise with austere imageryexperience-based narrative
Recurring Motifs
loss of languagesilencehomesicknessthe seawork and refusal

Health

  • alcohol dependence
    帰国後晩年（1950年代末〜1970年代）
    Had serious impact on creative life and personal life; resulted in repeated hospitalizations in later years
  • malnutrition (during internment)
    1945–1953（抑留期間）
    Left physical sequelae such as fractured ribs

Legacy

An important postwar poet who transformed his Siberian internment experiences into literary themes. Through works such as Homesickness and the Sea and his poetry collections, he foregrounded memory of internment and the problem of silence, earning recognition in both poetry and essays.

Academic Societies

  • Japan Poets Association

Quotes

  • A person who survived has no right to denounce others.
    Source: Interview (Christian Literature series, monthly) (1977)
  • Words for the sake of silence became poetry for me.
    Source: Essay "Words for the Sake of Silence" (1970)

Trivia

  • Served as a Russian-language interpreter for the Kwantung Army during WWII.
  • Won the 14th H Prize for his first poetry collection "The Homecoming of Sancho Panza."
  • Suffered from alcohol dependence in later life.
  • His remains are interred at Tama Cemetery in the Shinanocho church plot.