更新日：2010年7月5日

Komaki Omi

Komaki Omi, scholar of French literature, social science and translator, was born in Akita Prefecture in 1894. His real name was Omiya Komaki. He dropped out of Gyosei Gakuen Middle School to accompany his father to an international conference of legislators in France. He stayed on and worked his way through the law department of Paris University. During this time, he was greatly influenced by the philosophy of Romain Rolland and the Clarte (Light) movement of the novelist, Henri Barbusse, which encouraged him to participate in pacifist activities.

Komaki returned to Japan in 1919. With a friend from Akita, Kaneko Hirofumi, he founded the Tane Maku Hito (The Sowers) magazine and wrote poems and articles calling for an end to war and freedom for the oppressed classes. He was one of the first to awaken the Japanese to the existence of the Third International (Comintern-Communist International) movement in Europe and was a pioneer of proletarian literature.

He also devoted much time to translating French literature and among his most noted works are translations of Charles Louis Philippe’s "Dans la Petite Ville" and Andre Gide’s biography, "Charles Louis Philippe".

After the Second World War, Komaki took up the post of head of the Chuo Rodo Gakuin (Central Workers College) and later became a professor of Hosei University. He continued to pursue the ideals of a cosmopolitan individual and called himself a "sower of seeds." Among his works are "Ikoku no Senso" (Other Countries’ Wars) and "Furansu Kakumei Yobanashi" (Evening Conversations on the French Revolution). Komaki died in 1978 at the age of 84.

Komaki first came to live in Kamakura in 1925, making his home in Inamuragasaki. He later spent some years in French Indochina (now Vietnam), but returned after the war to Inamuragasaki, where he lived for the rest of his life.