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Japanese poet From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Shuntarō Tanikawa (谷川 俊太郎, Tanikawa Shuntarō) (born December 15, 1931, in Suginami, Japan) is a Japanese poet and translator.[1] He is considered to be one of the most widely read and highly regarded of living Japanese poets, both in Japan and abroad.[2] The English translation of his poetry volume Floating the River in Melancholy, translated by William I. Eliott[3] and Kazuo Kawamura and illustrated by Yoko Sano, won the American Book Award in 1989.
Shuntarō Tanikawa | |
---|---|
谷川俊太郎 | |
![]() Shuntarō Tanikawa, 2015 | |
Born | Suginami, Japan | December 15, 1931
Nationality | Japanese |
Occupation(s) | Poet and author |
Notable work | Two Billion Light Years of Solitude (1952) |
Spouse(s) | Eriko Kishida (married 1954-1955) Tomoko Okubo (married 1957-1989) Yōko Sano (married 1990-1996) |
Children | Kensaku Tanigawa |
Father | Tetsuzō Tanikawa |
Tanikawa has written more than 60 books of poetry in addition to translating Charles Schulz's Peanuts and the Mother Goose rhymes into Japanese. He was nominated for the 2008 Hans Christian Andersen Award for his contributions to children's literature. He was awarded Golden Wreath of Struga Poetry Evening in 2022. He also helped translate Swimmy by Leo Lionni into Japanese.
Among his contributions to less conventional art genres is Tanikawa's open video correspondence with Shūji Terayama (Video Letter, 1983). Since the 1970s, Tanikawa also provided short, onomatopoeic verses for picture books he published in collaboration with visual artist Sadamasa Motonaga, whom he had befriended during his residency in New York in 1966, offered by the Japan Society.
He has collaborated several times with the lyricist Chris Mosdell, including creating a deck of cards created in the omikuji fortune-telling tradition of Shinto shrines, titled The Oracles of Distraction.[4] Tanikawa also co-wrote Kon Ichikawa's Tokyo Olympiad and wrote the lyrics to the theme song of Howl's Moving Castle (film). Together with Jerome Rothenberg and Hiromi Itō, he has participated in collaborative renshi poetry, pioneered by Makoto Ōoka.[5]
The philosopher Tetsuzō Tanikawa was his father. The poet and translator Eriko Kishida was his first wife. The author-illustrator Yōko Sano was his third wife, and illustrated a volume of his poems: Onna Ni, translated by William I. Elliott and Kazuo Kawamura (Shueisha, 2012).[6]
In 1982, Tanikawa declined the Minister of Education's Art Encouragement Prize.
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