更新日：2010年7月5日

Sasaki Nobutsuna

Sasaki Nobutsuna, tanka poet and scholar, was born in what is now Mie Prefecture in 1872. From early childhood, he was taught by his father, Hirotsuna, to memorize old tanka verses and compose them himself. After graduating from the classics department of Tokyo Imperial University, he followed his father’s wish and decided to devote his life to waka (Japanese style verse including tanka)-both studying old verses and composing them himself. Together with Masaoka Shiki and Yosano Tekkan, he took part in a movement to revolutionize tanka and brought out his first collection of tanka "Omoigusa" in 1903. He collaborated with his father to publish a comprehensive survey of waka and contributed to the study of the earliest collection of Japanese poetry, Manyoshu, and the revival of the classics. In 1905, Sasaki became a lecturer at Tokyo Imperial University and was commissioned by the Education Ministry to revise the Manyoshu.

Earlier, he had also formed a coterie called the Chikuhaku Kai ("Chikuhaku" was his father’s pen name) with its own magazine Kokoro no Hana, brought out in 1898. Sasaki displayed his own philosophy of waka in Kokoro no Hana and devoted himself to nurturing the next generation of poets, encouraging them to display their originality. Among his many pupils were Kawada Jun, Kinoshita Rigen and Katayama Hiroko.

Among his collection of waka are "Shingetsu" (New moon), "Tokiwagi" (Evergreen) and "Yama to Mizu to" (Mountain and Water). He was also wrote the words for the song, "Natsu wa kinu." Sasaki died in 1963 at the age of 91.

Sasaki used a cottage"Sosensodo" in Omachi, Kamakura from 1921 for his creative activities.