Yoshida Hidekazu

Yoshida, before 1955

Yoshida Hidekazu ( Japanese 吉田 秀 和 ; born September 23, 1913 in Tōkyō ; died May 22, 2012 in Kamakura ) was a Japanese music critic and essayist.

life and work

Yoshida Hidekazu got to know the later Dada poet Nakahara Chūya (1907-1937) during his training at the Seijō High School (成 城 unter) under the German teacher Abe Rokurō (阿 部 六郎; 1904–1957) . Then he came into contact with the writers and critics Yoshida Kazuho (吉田 一 穂; 1898–1973) and Kobayashi Hideo (1902–1983). After graduating from Tōkyō University in Romance Studies, he worked part-time in the Ministry of the Interior. During the Pacific War he worked in the information department. In 1942 he translated Robert Schumann's "Collected Writings on Music and Musicians". After the war he gave up his post in the civil service and began to work as a freelance music critic. In 1953 he published his collection of reviews "Shudai to hensō" (主題 と 変 奏), such as "Theme and Variation", at a time when he worked with the cellist Saitō Hideo (1902–1974) and the composer Minao Shibata (1916– 1996) founded the "Music School for Children". It later became the training center "Tōhō Gakuen" (桐 朋 学園) and finally the "University Tōhō Gakuen".

From 1953 Yoshida traveled to Europe and America for about a year and expanded his knowledge by attending the performances of many composers and interpreters. In 1957 he participated in the founding of the "20th Century Music Research Institute", in which a group of Japanese avant-garde composers came together. He became the first leader. In 1988 he became director of Art Tower Mito . Yoshida wrote for magazines such as "Geijutsu shinchō" (藝術 新潮) and "Ongaku" (音 楽 芸 術). He moved to Asahi Shimbun from the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper and wrote many concert reviews that were widely read. His interest was not limited to classical music, he also dealt with modern trends.

His collected writings were published as "Yoshida Hidekazu zenshū" (吉田 秀 和 全集) from 1975 to 2004 in 24 volumes. He received the Osaragi Jirō Prize for this . In addition to many other prizes, Yoshida was honored in 1989 as a person with special cultural merits and in 2006 he was awarded the Order of Culture .

Yoshida was married to the German writer Barbara Yoshida-Krafft for the second time.

Web links

• Biography in the Kotobank, Japanese

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