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Noboru Usuda

うすだ のぼる

Usuda Noboru

Pen Names: Noboru Usuda（Pen name used for his tanka poetry）, Noboru Usuda (real name)（Real name used in educational writings）

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1928-02-05 （Nagano Prefecture, Japan）
Nationality
Japan
Languages
Japanese

Career

Occupations
tanka poet, educational activist, high school teacher, literary critic, author
Active Years
1945-
Affiliations
National Federation of Private School Teachers (Japan), All Japan Teachers' Union (Zenkyō), New Japan Tanka Poets Association, Japan Democratic Literary Association, International Takuboku Society, Japanese Communist Party
Memberships
Japanese Communist Party, New Japan Tanka Poets Association, Japan Democratic Literary Association, International Takuboku Society
Influenced By
Junzo Watanabe

Education

Tokyo Physical School (now Tokyo University of Science)
Country: Japan
Attended night junior high school and graduated from Tokyo Physical School

Awards

Takiji-Yuriko Prize
Work: Hanadoki
Organization: Takiji-Yuriko Prize Selection Committee
Result: Winner

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Before Dawn: Usuda Noboru Tanka Collection

1965 Tanka poetry

An early representative tanka collection featuring poems about labor and everyday scenes.

laboreveryday lifeyouth and growth

Songs of Mother: Usuda Noboru Tanka Collection

1979 Tanka poetry

A tanka collection centered on the theme of mothers, focusing on family and memory.

motherfamilymemory

Invitation to Tanka

1978 Essay / Introduction

An introductory book offering guidance on appreciating and composing tanka.

tanka techniquesappreciation

Ishikawa Takuboku

1973 Study / Criticism

A study of Ishikawa Takuboku's life and works, focusing on his poetic world and social orientation.

Ishikawa Takubokumodern Japanese poetrysocialism

Radiance of the Wind: Selected Tanka of Noboru Usuda

2000 Tanka poetry (selected)

A self-selected collection compiling poems chosen by the author from across his career.

retrospectivememorylife

Bibliography

  • Before Dawn: Usuda Noboru Tanka Collection (1965)
  • Reviving Schools: Resisting the Walls of Private Education (1971)
  • Contemporary Tanka: Appreciation and Criticism (1972)
  • Ishikawa Takuboku (1973)
  • Building Private Schools for the People: Development and Issues of Public Funding Movements (1973)
  • Creating Teacher Groups: Overcoming Educational Decay and Juvenile Delinquency (1976)
  • Invitation to Tanka (1978)
  • Soaring High School Education: What Students Became Visible Here (1978)
  • Challenges of the Contemporary Education Movement: Achievements and Prospects for the 1980s (1979)
  • Songs of Mother: Usuda Noboru Tanka Collection (1979)
  • Dictionary of Tanka Composition (1980)
  • Songs of Youth: Tanka and Essays (1980)
  • Takuboku's Songs: His Life and Death — Light and Shadow of Youth (1980)
  • Progressive Thought in 'Myōjō' (1980)
  • Songs Passed On (1984)
  • Songs of Circumstance: Usuda Noboru Tanka Collection (1985)
  • Handcuffs Present: A Critical Biography of Junzo Watanabe (1985)
  • Two Takubokus: Encounters of Youth (1985)
  • The Crisis of Contemporary Tanka: Collected Essays on Tanka (1988)
  • Ishikawa Takuboku and the 'High Treason Incident' (1990)
  • Turbulent Times: Usuda Noboru Tanka Collection (1990)
  • Wind of Private Flowers (1992)
  • Journey Pursuing the Light of Ishikawa Takuboku (1996)
  • The Era of the Independents + Communist Party: Can Kochi's Challenge Change Japan? (1998)
  • Evening Plover: The Forgotten Beautiful Tanka Poet — Ishigami Ruko (1998)
  • The Century at a Fingertip: Usuda Noboru Tanka Collection (1999)
  • The New World of Ishikawa Takuboku (2000)
  • Radiance of the Wind: Selected Tanka of Noboru Usuda (2000)
  • Striking the Times: Memorable People and Works (2001)
  • Occupation Censorship and Postwar Tanka: Continued Critical Biography of Junzo Watanabe (2001)
  • Shinano: Tanka Collection (2002)
  • Tanka Writing Workshop: For All Who Love Songs (2003)
  • Array of Stars: Tanka Collection (2003)
  • Ishikawa Takuboku: His Path to Socialism (2004)
  • Alto on the Slope: Essays by Noboru Usuda (2005)
  • Tale of Immortal Love: The Forgotten Beautiful Tanka Poet — Ishigami Ruko (2005)
  • Ishikawa Takuboku and Ishigami Ruko: Their Contemporaneity and Positions (2006)
  • Study of Junzo Watanabe (2007)
  • Friends, Singleheartedly: Collected Forewords and Afterwords by Noboru Usuda (2008)
  • Faraway Shinano (2009)
  • Ishigami Ruko's Lover Nagata Shohei: His Life and Works (2010)
  • I Do Not Write in the Dark Night: Continued Memorable People and Works (2010)
  • Thus I Came to Sing: The Era of 'Tsuyukusa' (2011)
  • History of Private Schools (co-authored, 1967)
  • Anthology of Love Poems: The Wandering and Loving Poet Takuboku (editor, 1978)
  • Collected Poems of Junzo Watanabe (editor, 1978)
  • Tanka Grammar Dictionary (co-editor, 1985)
  • Roasted Beans Bloom: Living with High School Students (co-edited, 1991)
  • Poetry Collection: The Party of Japan (editor, 1992)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
concise and direct expressiontanka with social and political perspectivescritical and scholarly style (e.g., studies on Takuboku)
Recurring Motifs
laboreducationmotherhomeland (Shinano / Nagano)interest in Ishikawa Takuboku

Legacy

Noboru Usuda is known in postwar Japanese tanka circles for addressing social themes such as labor and education from a leftist perspective, and for his criticism and scholarship on Ishikawa Takuboku. He was also active as an educational activist and published works on private schooling and teacher organization. He is regarded as a figure who influenced both the poetic world and education/labor movements.

Academic Societies

  • New Japan Tanka Poets Association
  • Japan Democratic Literary Association
  • International Takuboku Society

Trivia

  • At 17 he worked as an apprentice at the JNR Nagano factory.
  • His real name is Noboru Usuda (used in educational writings).
  • He won the Takiji-Yuriko Prize for the tanka collection 'Hanadoki' (award year not specified in available sources).
  • He was a member of the Japanese Communist Party and ran in the upper house elections on proportional lists in 1992 and 1995.