更新日：2010年7月5日

Shimaki Kensaku

Shimaki Kensaku, novelist, was born in Hokkaido in 1903. His real name was Asakura Kikuo. He issued a literary coterie magazine "Kunugi no Mi (Acorn)" in 1918 and published tanka (short poems of 31 syllables) and essays under the pen name of Asakura Tengai. The next year he came up to Tokyo and continued to study, although hardly able to support himself, and contracted tuberculosis as a result of overwork.

Although he entered Tohoku Imperial University in 1925, he soon left the university and joined the peasant movement. In 1927 he became an active member of the Japan Communist Party but the illness recurred. The next year he was arrested and prosecuted on suspicion of violation of the Peace Preservation Law. He was released in 1932 on account of fever and spitting up blood, after promising to convert.

In 1934 he published his maiden work "Rai" (Leprosy) in the magazine Bungaku Hyoron (Literary Review), based on his experience during imprisonment, and received much recognition. Then he brought out "Momoku" (Blindness) in Chuo Koron (Central Review) and established his fame as a writer. These were followed in quick succession by other works, including "Goku" (Prison), "Reimei" (Dawn), "Saiken" (Reconstruction) and "Seikatsu no Tankyu" (The Quest for Life). He died in 1945 at the age of 41.

In Kamakura he lived from 1937 at Yukinoshita and moved to Ogigayatsu in 1939. He donated his books to the lending library, Kamakura Bunko (Library), and was closely associated with Kawabata Yasunari, Kobayashi Hideo and Takami Jun. When he died, fellow writers held a farewell ceremony at the Kamakura Library, after the funeral rites at his home.