Hirata Tokuboku

Hirata Tokuboku

Hirata Tokuboku ( Japanese 平 田 禿 木 ; * February 10, 1873 in Tokyo ; † March 13, 1943 ), actually Hirata Kiichirō ( 平 田 喜 一郎 ), was a Japanese Anglicist and essayist.

Life

Hirata Tokuboku was born Hirata Kiichirō on February 10, 1873 in Tokyo. He attended the 1st high school in Tokyo ( 第一 高等学校 , Dai-ichi kōtōgakkō , later Kyōto University ) and was co-editor of the literary magazine Bungakukai during this time . As such, he was (alongside Kitamura Tōkoku , Shimazaki Tōson , Ueda Bin , Togawa Shūkotsu , Higuchi Ichiyō and others) one of the pioneers of the new romantic current that the magazine evoked in the literature of the time. In the Bungakukai he mainly published reviews and his own essays. He dropped out of high school prematurely and received pedagogical training at the Higher Normal School Tokyo (later Tokyo Pedagogical University ) as an English teacher.

From 1903 he spent three exchange years at the University of Oxford . After his return he taught at various schools, including a. his alma mater. In 1918 he took part as editor-in-chief of the newly published magazine Eigo bungaku ( 英語 文学 , dt. "The English literature") and tried so to an introduction to the English literature. He was also close friends with the American philosopher and art historian Ernest Fenollosa .

Hirata made a major contribution to his work on traditional Japanese Nō theater through translations. These translations later came to England through Fenollosa, where they also influenced Ezra Pound and, through this, William Butler Yeats . In addition to his own literary work, Hirata produced numerous translations of English-language literature, including works by Charles Lamb , William Makepeace Thackeray , Jane Austen , and Thomas Hardy . He later translated Charles Dickens , Oscar Wilde and George Meredith .

Web links

• Personal details and digitized works at Aozora Bunko (Japanese)

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . So Hirata is the family name, Tokuboku the first name.