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Saburo Kuroda

くろだ さぶろう

Kuroda Saburo

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1919-02-26 （Kure, Hiroshima, Japan）
Died
1980-01-08 （Tokyo Women's Medical University Hospital (Tokyo, Japan)） age 60
Nationality
Japan
Languages
Japanese
Residence History
Kure, Hiroshima (birthplace) → Kagoshima Prefecture (raised) → Tokyo (NHK employment, later life)

Career

Occupations
poet, literary critic, broadcasting staff
Active Years
1947-1980
Affiliations
NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation), Poets' Conference (served as chair of the executive committee)
Memberships
Poets' Conference

Education

Kagoshima Prefectural Daiichi Junior High School (old system)
Country: Japan
The Seventh High School (Zoshikan, old system)
Country: Japan
University of Tokyo, Faculty of Economics
Faculty of Economics
Country: Japan

Awards

H Award
1955
Work: To a Lonely Woman
Result: winner

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

To a Lonely Woman

1954 poetry collection

A collection of love poems written in plain language rooted in everyday life, reflecting postwar sensibilities.

loveeveryday lifecivil life
Adaptations
  • [music] Song settings of poems (example)

With Little Yuri

1960 poetry collection

A poetry collection depicting life with his daughter Yuri while his wife was hospitalized—an impassioned work about family and loss.

familylossillness
Adaptations
  • [music] Poems set to music (example)

Prisoner of the Age

1965 poetry collection

A collection of poems portraying individuals constrained by their era and social conditions; works with social undertones.

eraindividualsociety

Bibliography

  • To a Lonely Woman (Shosonsha, 1954)
  • Lost Epitaphs (Shosonsha, 1955)
  • A Thirsty Heart (Shosonsha, 1957)
  • The World Inside and Outside (essays, Shosonsha, 1957)
  • Saburo Kuroda Collected Poems (Eureka, 1958)
  • With Little Yuri (Shosonsha, 1960)
  • Introduction to Contemporary Poetry (Shichosha, 1961)
  • Higher Still (Shichosha, 1964)
  • Prisoner of the Age (Shosonsha, 1965)
  • Saburo Kuroda Collected Poems (Shichosha, 1968)
  • One Day, One Time (Shosonsha, 1968)
  • How to Create Poetry (Meiji Shoin, 1969)
  • Saburo Kuroda Collected Poems (Shosonsha, 1970)
  • How to Appreciate Poetry (Meiji Shoin, 1973)
  • Elegies (Shosonsha, 1976)
  • Saburo Kuroda Collected Poems (Shosonsha, 1976)
  • Between Death and Death (Kashinsha, 1979)
  • The Afterworld (Shosonsha, 1979)
  • New Selected Poems of Saburo Kuroda (Shichosha, 1979)
  • Frankly Speaking: A Poet's Life (Shin Nihon Publishing, 1979)
  • Bleeding (Shichosha, 1980)
  • Saburo Kuroda Diaries: Postwar, Vol.1-2 (Shichosha, 1980-1981)
  • Saburo Kuroda Diaries: Wartime, Vol.1-4 (Shichosha, 1981)
  • Collected Works of Saburo Kuroda, Vol.1-3 (Shichosha, 1989)

Adaptations

  • Musical settings of poems (e.g., Akai Tori's "Kamifusen", Wataru Takada's "Yugure")

Style & Themes

Literary Style
plain and accessible expressionvoice rooted in everyday lifefrank emotional expression
Recurring Motifs
familyillnesslonelinessdaily life

Health

  • tuberculosis
    戦後（具体的期間不明）
    He continued to create while battling the disease; experiences of illness influenced his work.
  • hypopharyngeal cancer
    晩年〜1980年（死因）
    Cause of death in 1980.

Legacy

Recognized as a poet who expressed postwar civic emotions in plain language. Many of his poems were set to music and became familiar to the public, contributing to the popularization of poetry.

Academic Societies

  • Poets' Conference

In Popular Culture

  • His poems were set to music and became repertoire for folk and classical performers

Trivia

  • Many of his poems were set to music by classical and folk composers.
  • He worked at NHK and bridged broadcasting and poetic creation.