Japanese Literary Awards

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Itsuko Ishikawa

いしかわ いつこ

Ishikawa Itsuko

Profile

Gender
Female
Born
1933-02-18 （Tokyo, Japan）
Nationality
Japan
Languages
Japanese

Career

Occupations
poet, middle school teacher
Active Years
1956-

Education

Ochanomizu University
Department of History
Country: Japan

Awards

H Prize (11th)
1961
Work: Wolf / We
Result: winner
Chikyū Prize (11th)
1986
Work: Did You Go to Chidorigafuchi?
Result: winner
Women's Cultural Award (15th)
2011
Result: winner

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Three Daily Vows: Poems by Itsuko Ishikawa

1956 poetry collection

Early collection of poems reflecting personal vows and everyday sensibilities.

everyday lifeself

Wolf / We

1960 poetry collection

One of her notable collections, exploring postwar sensibilities and individual voices.

postwarindividual

Hiroshima Litany

1982 poetry collection

A collection addressing the atomic bombing, remembrance, and mourning for victims.

atomic bombingmourningmemory

Did You Go to Chidorigafuchi?

1986 poetry collection

Poems themed around remembrance of the war dead, questioning collective memory.

warremembrancepeace

The Sea of Rongerik

2011 poetry collection

Expands focus to Asia-Pacific war and nuclear issues beyond Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

nuclearregional focushistory

Bibliography

  • Three Daily Vows: Poems by Itsuko Ishikawa
  • Wolf / We
  • The Sea Burns: Poems by Itsuko Ishikawa
  • Children and War: Poems by Itsuko Ishikawa
  • Hiroshima Litany
  • The Swimming Horse
  • Itsuko Ishikawa: Collected Poems (Modern Japanese Poetry Library)
  • Hiroshima: Voices of the Dead
  • Poems: The Swaying Hibiscus
  • Requiem for the Broken Flowers
  • Did You Go to Chidorigafuchi? (Expanded Edition)
  • Definitive Edition: Did You Go to Chidorigafuchi?
  • The Sea of Rongerik
  • Poetic Essays: Mourning and Anger — The Sorrow of the Cherry Nation (co-authored)
  • A Single Tale: Visions of the Asia-Pacific War
  • New Edition: Collected Poems of Itsuko Ishikawa
  • Doshō: The Life of the Monk Given Zen Transmission from Sanzo Hoshi
  • Junior High Students' Four Seasons
  • Teachers' Melancholy
  • Voices of Unknown War Dead: Chidorigafuchi and the Shōwa Era
  • Girls Forced into Military Sexual Slavery
  • Tekona: Women
  • I Became a Little Ash... Do You Know Depleted Uranium? (co-authored)
  • Japan's Wars and Poets
  • Shattered and Broken: For Minamoto no Sanetomo
  • Torn Apart We Wrote: Memoirs of Korean A-bomb Survivors (co-edited)
  • Notes on Osahito: Ghosts Speak of the Shadow of the Meiji Restoration

Style & Themes

Literary Style
socially engaged poetryelegiac and testimonial voice
Recurring Motifs
waratomic bombingremembrancepeace

Legacy

A socially engaged poet focusing on war, the atomic bombing, and women's issues. Through poetry and publishing, she has worked for decades to preserve memory and advocate for peace.

Trivia

  • From 1982 for 29 years she published all 100 issues of the quarterly minicom-magazine "Thinking about Hiroshima and Nagasaki."
  • Served as an initiator of the "War Exhibition for Peace" alongside public figures such as Toshiyuki Nishida, Yōji Yamada and Tetsuko Kuroyanagi.