更新日：2010年7月5日

Takeyama Michio

Takeyama Michio, critic and scholar of German literature, was born in Osaka in 1903. In his early years, he moved frequently due to his father’s job as a bank employee. From the age of four to ten he lived in Seoul. Upon graduation from the German Literature Department of Tokyo Imperial University (now Tokyo University), Takeyama became an instructor at the First Higher School in Tokyo. The following year, the Ministry of Education sent him to Europe where he studied for three years.

After returning home, Takeyama taught German in the First Higher School, this time as a professor. It was during this time that he translated works of German literature, among them Goethe’s "An Anthology," Nietzsche’s "Thus Spake Zarathustra," and "Out of My Life and Thought: An Autobiography" by Albert Schweitzer.

After the Second World War, Takeyama became widely known for his novel, "Biruma no Tategoto" (The Harp of Burma), which was serialized in Akatombo, a children’s magazine. In 1951 he resigned his teaching position and devoted himself to literary criticism, publishing "Showa no Seishin-shi" (A psychological history of the Showa Era) and "Ningen ni Tsuite" (On Human Beings). In 1957, he helped run the Nihon Bunka (Cultural) Forum. In 1959, Takeyama created Jiyu (Freedom), a literary magazine, and together with the novelist Hirabayashi Taiko, served as associate editor.

His works "Koto Henreki: Nara" (Pilgrimage to the ancient capital, Nara), and "Nihonjin to Bi" (The Japanese and Beauty) combine his broad and deep understanding of the classic arts of Japan and his sensitivity to European literature. He also wrote travelogues, including "Yoroppa no Tabi" (Travels in Europe) and "Maboroshi to Shinjitsu: Watashi no Sobieto Kembun" (Fantasy and Truth: My Observations of the Soviet Union), in which he analyzed Western civilization. Takeyama died in 1984 at the age of 80.

Takeyama’s connection with Kamakura began in 1944 when he moved to a house in Ogigayatsu. From 1949 until his death, he made his home in Zaimokuza.