Saitō Sanki

Saitō Sanki ( Japanese 西 東 三 鬼 ; * May 15, 1900 in Minamishinza, Tsuyama ; † April 1, 1962 ), actually Saitō Keichoku ( 斎 藤 敬 直 ), was a Japanese haiku poet. The Saitō Sanki Prize has been awarded in Tsuyama since 1992 .

Life

Saitō Sanki was born on May 15, 1900 in Minamishinza , Tsuyama . In 1915 he attended Tsuyama Middle School (now Tsuyama High School) there. In 1919 he lost his mother to the Spanish flu, which was spread all over the world at the time, and then moved to Tōkyō , where he attended the middle school of the Aoyama Institute, but broke off his training without a degree. In 1921 he finally began to study at the Japanese School of Dental Medicine (now the Dental University) and graduated in 1925. In the fall of 1925 he married and went to Singapore , where he worked as a dentist. However, due to anti-Japanese movements at the time and a typhoid disease , he returned to Japan in 1928 and opened a dental practice.

In 1933, while working at the Kanda Public Hospital (Tokyo) , he began to write haiku on the recommendation of a patient . As early as 1934 he became a member of the haiku magazine Sōmatō ( 走馬燈 ) and developed a tendency towards the so-called "movement of the new haiku". Yamaguchi Seishi became his teacher. In 1935 he took part in the haiku, which were represented by the Haiku community of the University of Kyoto , and in 1938 ended his work as a dentist. In 1939 he founded the magazine Tenkō ( 天香 ) and published his first haiku collection, Hata ( 旗 , German "flag").

1940 Sanki was involved in the Kyōdai haiku incident , which resulted from the fact that the Haiku community of the University of Kyoto (short name: Kyōdai) was subordinated to the spread of anti-war ideas, and was imprisoned by the Japanese secret police. The charges were then dropped on the condition that Sanki cease poetry. In 1942 he moved from Tōkyō to Kobe , where he waited for a change in the political situation under the observation of the secret police. In 1945, after the end of the Second World War , he began again to write haiku.

On September 1, 1947, he founded the Modern Haiku Community with Ishida Hakyō and Kanda Hideo . In 1948 he helped Yamaguchi Seishi found the magazine Tenrō and became its editor-in-chief. In the same year he brought out his second haiku collection Yoru no momo ( 夜 の 桃 , dt. "The peach tree at night"), took over the management of the magazine Gekirō ( 激浪 , dt. "Waving waves") and returned after 30 years for the first time back to his homeland Tsuyama . The publishing house of the Gekirō he moved to the area Uenochō Tsuyama. In 1948 he moved to Hirakata , Osaka Prefecture, and took a position at the Kōri Hospital. In 1951 his third haiku collection, Kyō ( 今日 , dt. "Today") appeared.

From 1952 he published the haiku magazine Dangai ( 断崖 , German "abyss"). In 1956 he became editor-in-chief of the Haiku magazine of the book publisher Kadokawa Shoten, but the following year he stopped working again. In October 1961 he had to undergo surgery for stomach cancer. In 1962 he published his fourth haiku collection, Henshin ( 変 身 , German for " metamorphosis "). Saitō Sanki died on April 1 of this year at the age of 61.

Haiku collections (selection)

• Hata . Sanseidō, Tōkyō 1939.
• Yoru no momo . Shichiyōsha, Tōkyō 1948.
• Kyō . Tenrō Haikukai, Nara 1951.
• Henshin . Kadokawa Shoten, Tōkyō 1962.

Web links

• Tsuyama City website about the Saitō Sanki Prize

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