更新日：2010年7月5日

Takami Jun

The novelist and poet Takami Jun was born in Fukui Prefecture in 1907. His real name was Takama Yoshio. Since his early teens he was attracted to the human aestheticism espoused by the Shirakaba (White Birch) school. On entering Tokyo University, he joined a Left Wing arts alliance and contributed pieces to their journal (Sayoku Geijutsu). After graduation, he went to work for Columbia Records and at the same time became an enthusiastic proletariat writer. In 1932 he was arrested on suspicion of contravening the Peace Preservation Law and forced to recant his leftist ideology.

In 1935 "Kokyu Wasureubeki" (Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot), a garrulous piece describing the agony of the conversion from Marxism, was short-listed for the first Akutagawa Prize. After that, he threw himself into his writing, gaining recognition for "Ikanaru Hoshi no Moto ni" (Beneath What Star), a story set in the Asakusa entertainment district, followed in quick succession by many other popular stories.

After the war, he suffered from various ailments for ten years or so, but he managed to write poems from his sickbed, including an anthology, "Jumoko Ha" (Tree School). He also published, "Takami Jun Nikki," (The Diaries of Takami Jun), which described his experiences during the war and immediately afterwards.

In his last years, he set to work on a series about the Showa period, "Gekiryu" (Violent Current), "Iya na Kanji" (A Disagreeable Feeling), and "Oinaru Te no Kage" (In the Shadow of a Large Hand), but died in 1965 at the age of 58, before its completion.

Takami Jun lived in Yamanouchi, Kita Kamakura from 1943 until his death. He was involved in the running of the lending library, Kamakura Bunko, and the publishing house of the same name. He is buried at Tokeiji Temple and a stone tablet bearing one of his poems stands beside the grave.