Tomisawa Uio

Tomisawa Uio, 1947

Tomisawa Uio ( Japanese 富 沢 有為 男 ; born March 29, 1902 in Ōita , Ōita prefecture ; † January 15, 1970 in Tokyo ) was a Japanese writer and artist.

Life

Due to the living conditions of his father, the family moved frequently in Tomisawa's early years until they finally lived in Nagoya . Tomisawa attended Tōka Middle School and began studying painting and literature at the Tokyo Art Academy. However, he broke off his studies prematurely, left the art college without a degree and began to work as a mangaka for the newspaper Shinachi (today: Chūnichi Shimbun).

From 1925 he published his first works in the literary magazine Washi no su ( 鷲 の 巣 , for example: bird's nest). In 1927 he traveled to France for a year as a student abroad to take painting lessons. Upon his return, he married in 1930 and moved to the Tenjin district of Tokyo's Uchigome district. Gradually he turned more to literature and received the Akutagawa Prize in February 1937 for the work Mediterranean ( 地中海 , Chichūkai ) published six months earlier .

In 1942, like many of his fellow writers, he was sent to Indonesia as a war reporter for a year. When he returned to Japan, his home was bombed out and Tomisawa was evacuated to Horino in Fukushima Prefecture , where he also spent his old age . In 1970, Tomisawa died of heart failure during a trip to Tokyo at the age of 67.

At the beginning of his writing career Tomisawa wrote not only works that belong to the so-called pure literature. Through his artistic activity, he also wrote many reviews and reviews. Only in the course of his work as a war correspondent did he turn to pure literature with a large number of war novels ( 戦 記 小説 , Senki Shosetsu ) . After the war he wrote almost exclusively short stories for children and young people and mainly translated foreign literature for young people into Japanese.

Tomisawa's eldest son is Tomisawa Hikaru ( 冨 澤 暉 ), who was Chief of Staff of the Ground Self-Defense Forces from 1993-1995 .

Works

• 1936 Shiobara Tasuke
• 1938 Aijō butai ( 愛情 部隊 )
• 1941 Atarashii shōsetsu to sono arigata ( 新 し い 小説 と そ の あ り 方 )
• 1941 Gunjin sonchō ( 軍人 村長 )
• 1942 Geijutsuron ( 芸 術 論 )

Translations

• Anna Sewell : Black Beauty , translated by Tomisawa, Uio: Kuro uma monogatari く ろ う ま 物語 , 1956
• Louisa May Alcott translated from Tomisawa, Uio: Utsukushii porī 美 し い ポ リ ー , 1959
• Johanna Spyri : Cornelli is educated, translated by Tomisawa, Uio: Koruneri no kōfuku コ ル ネ リ の 幸福 , 1959
• Edmondo De Amicis : Cuore translated by Tomisawa, Uio: Kuore ク オ レ , 1960

footnote

1. ↑ The pure literature ( 純 文学 , Junbungaku ) is to be seen in contrast to mass literature.

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