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Kureo Manabe

まなべ くれお

Manabe Kureo

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1920-01-25 （Okagaki Village, Onga District, Fukuoka Prefecture (now Okagaki Town), Japan）
Died
2012-06-05 （Japan） age 92
Nationality
Japan
Languages
Japanese
Residence History
Fukuoka Prefecture (birth and youth) → Tokyo (moved in 1949)

Career

Occupations
Writer, Essayist, Haiku poet
Active Years
1939-2012
Influenced By
Ichio Dan, Hiroyuki Agawa, Toshio Shimao
Nominations
Candidate for the 21st Akutagawa Prize (1949, 'Sappho Reminiscence')

Education

Fukuoka Commercial School (now Fukusho High School)
Period: ～1939
Year of Graduation: 1939
Country: Japan
After graduation helped found the literary magazine 'Kooro'
Bunka Gakuin, Faculty of Letters
Faculty of Letters
Period: 1941-（在学）
Country: Japan
Entered in 1941. Self-published the haiku collection 'Hanabi'

Awards

Fujimura Memorial Rekitei Prize
1992
Work: Haiku collection 'Yukionna' (Snow Woman)
Organization: Fujimura Memorial (Prize)
Result: winner
Yomiuri Literary Prize
1993
Work: Haiku collection 'Yukionna' (Snow Woman)
Organization: Yomiuri Shimbun
Result: winner
Jakotsu Prize
2010
Work: Haiku collection 'Gepaku' (Moon Spirit / Moon Radiance)
Organization: Jakotsu Prize (selection committee)
Result: winner

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Evening Primrose

1949 Short fiction / children's literature (classification)

A work published in 1949 depicting youth emotions and landscapes.

youthreminiscencenature

Sappho Reminiscence

1949 Short story collection

First fiction collection; noted as work by an emerging writer.

poetic reminiscenceyouthexploration of feelings

Yukionna (Haiku Collection)

1992 Haiku

Second haiku collection, gathering poems on winter and human scenes.

seasonslonelinessnature depiction

Gepaku (Moon Radiance) - Haiku Collection

2009 Haiku

One of his later haiku collections; praised for its sensuous style.

moonemotionlandscape

Bibliography

  • Evening Primrose
  • Sappho Reminiscence
  • Surroundings at Twenty
  • Destiny
  • Oda Nobunaga: A Hero of Bold Genius
  • Uchinada: A New History Painted on Its Dunes
  • The Sorrowful Field Path
  • A Lone Tree in the Storm
  • Franklin
  • Red Sky
  • Yoshiie Hachimantarō
  • Foreign Object
  • Jenner
  • Courage of Insects: Western Region Short Stories
  • The Flying Man
  • The Moon and the Forty-ninth Frog
  • Biography: The Man of the Fiery House — Ichio Dan
  • Takuboku Ishikawa: The Genius Poet Who Faced Illness and Poverty
  • Minamoto no Yoshitsune: The Young Genius of War
  • Hanabi (Fireworks) — Haiku Collection
  • Yukionna (Snow Woman) — Haiku Collection
  • Definitive Yukionna: Selected Haiku of Kureo Manabe
  • Power to Dream: Selected Essays and Poems
  • Dew's Glitter: Writers of the Shōwa Period
  • Collected Haiku of Kureo Manabe (edited by Sō Sakon)
  • Gepaku (Moon Radiance) — Haiku Collection
  • Wandering Heavenly Horse
  • Kureo Manabe: Complete Haiku Collection

Style & Themes

Literary Style
sensuous haiku stylelyrical and retrospective prosedetailed nature depiction
Recurring Motifs
moonsnownature and seasonsyouth and reminiscence

Health

  • aspiration pneumonia
    2012
    Died in 2012 from aspiration pneumonia

Legacy

A writer and haiku poet active from the postwar period to his later years, working across haiku, fiction and biographies. He won major haiku and literary prizes in later life and was respected in the Japanese haiku community for decades.

Archives

  • National Diet Library (holdings)

In Popular Culture

  • Often appears in postwar literary and haiku histories and studies

Trivia

  • His parents (Jinbee and Ori) were both haiku poets, using the pen-names Tenmon and Orijo respectively.
  • In 1939 he co-founded the literary magazine 'Kooro' with Hiroyuki Agawa, Toshio Shimao and Taro Naka.
  • He was an Akutagawa Prize candidate in 1949, gaining attention as an emerging writer.
  • Died in 2012 at the age of 92.