Miyamoto Kenji

Miyamoto Kenji

Enjoyed under the image of Tokuda Kyūichi

Miyamoto Kenji ( Japanese 宮本顕治 ; born 17th October 1908 in Hikari ( Yamaguchi Prefecture ), died 18th July 2007 ) was a Japanese Marxist political and literary critic.

life and work

Miyamoto Kenji drew attention to himself during his studies at Tokyo University in 1929 with an article on Akutagawa Ryūnosuke with the title "Haiboku no Bungaku" (敗北 の 文学, about "literature of the vanquished"). He won the first prize in a competition that the magazine "Kaizō" had advertised.

Miyamoto joined the Communist Party (CPJ) in 1931 . In 1932 he married the writer Araki Yuriko . On December 26, 1933, Miyamoto was arrested from a police patrol and charged with being involved in the death of a party member suspected of being a spy who had been questioned by him and a colleague. Miyamoto protested his innocence in the death, but was imprisoned for it and under the "Law for the Protection of Public Safety" (治安 維持 法, Chian iji-hō). He remained in prison and was only released after the Pacific War in 1945.

Immediately after the war he joined the re-established KPJ, but in 1950 had to stop all activities in the so-called “ Red Purge ”. In 1982 he followed Nosaka Sanzo as chairman of the party's central committee. In 1989, after 12 years, he gave up his seat in the House of Lords and withdrew from politics.

Miyamoto was buried in Tama Cemetery .

Remarks

1. ↑ Front row: Shida Shigeo, Nosaka Sanzō , Konno Yojirō, back row: Shiga Yoshio , Miyamoto, Kasuga Shōichi.
2. ↑ The magazine Kaizō (改造) appeared from 1919 to 1955 by Kaizō-Verlag.

literature

• S. Noma (Ed.): Miyamoto Kenji . In: Japan. An Illustrated Encyclopedia. Kodansha, 1993, ISBN 4-06-205938-X , p. 1365.

Web links

Commons : Miyamoto Kenji  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Miyamoto in the Hagi database

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Miyamoto is the family name, Kenji the first name.