Katsuji Akihara
Katsuji Akihara | |
|---|---|
| 秋原勝二 | |
 Akihara in 2012 | |
| Born | Jun Watanabe June 1913 |
| Died | April 17, 2015 (aged 101) Tokyo, Japan |
| Citizenship | Japan Manchukuo (until 1945) |
| Education | Dalian Manchuria Railway Training School |
| Occupation(s) | Novelist, writer, publisher, accountant |
| Years active | 1930–2015 |
| Known for | Publisher of Sakubun (1964–2015) |
Katsuji Akihara[nb 1] (June 1913 – April 17, 2015) was the pen name of Japanese-Manchukuoan novelist and writer Jun Watanabe. He primarily contributed to Sakubun, a Japanese language magazine based in Dalian.
Biography
[edit]Jun Watanabe was born in Fukushima Prefecture in June 1913.[1] After losing his parents, he moved to Manchuria with his brother at the age of seven.[2] He graduated from the Dalian Manchuria Railway Training School and began working in the accounting department of the Manchuria Railway Company in 1930.[1] After two years with the railway company, he joined the staff of Sakubun, a literary magazine written by railroad employees.[3] Akihara began authoring articles in 1936.[1][3] The magazine's 55th and final edition was published in December 1942.[4]
Akihara returned to Japan in the mid-1940s, eventually settling in Tokyo.[1] In 1964, he re-established Sakubun, which began publishing new issues twice a year.[3][4] He served as the magazine's publisher until his death in 2015, releasing its final issue (volume 208) that same year.[5] Sakubun ceased publication shortly thereafter.[4]
As a writer, Akihara is best remembered for his essay “Hometown Lost” (故郷 喪失, Kokyō sōshitsu), which explores themes of family loss and rural poverty in Japan.[6] Originally published in a 1937 issue of Sakubun, it reached a broader audience through the second edition of The Manchuria Year Book.[7]
Footnotes
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b c d "Akibara Masaru" 秋原勝 [Katsuji Akihara]. Modern Biographical Dictionary of Japan (in Japanese). 2023-01-23. Retrieved 2024-12-24.
- ^ Machiko, Kitazawa (May 2012). "Kankō no go aisatsu" 刊行のごあいさつ [Publication announcement]. Scanning Urban Rhyme Editors Group. Retrieved 2024-12-24.
- ^ a b c Akihara, Katsuji (2013-02-21). "Manshū no jissō kakinokosu" 満州の実相 書き残す [The Truth About Manchuria]. The Nikkei (in Japanese). Tsuneo Kita. Retrieved 2024-12-24.
- ^ a b c Okada 2018, p. 196.
- ^ Okada 2018, p. 222.
- ^ Xie, Miya Qiong (2023). Territorializing Manchuria: the transnational frontier and literatures of East Asia. Harvard East Asian monographs. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Asia Center. p. 259. ISBN 978-0-674-27830-1.
- ^ Kamiya, Tadataka; Kimura, Kazuaki, eds. (March 1, 2007). "Gaichi" Nihongo bungakuron 〈外地〉日本語文学論 [<Foreign Area> Japanese Literature Theory]. Sekaishiso seminar. Kyōto-shi: Sekai Shisōsha. p. 158. ISBN 978-4-7907-1258-9. OCLC 123901907.
Sources
[edit]- Okada, Hideki (2018-07-11). "Arimichi sakka Aoki Minoru ―`manjin mo no', soshite sengo" 在満作家青木實―「満人もの」、そして戦後 [Manchuria-based writer Aoki Minoru: "Manchurians" and the postwar period] (PDF). Ritsumeikan University Law Journal (in Japanese). 6 (March 2018). Kyoto, Japan: Ritsumeikan University: 195–226. ISSN 2434-2009. Retrieved 2024-12-24..