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The Japan Foundation Awards / Special Prizes (2002) - Profile
- The Japan Foundation Awards
- Makoto Ooka / Gerald L. Curtis
- The Japan Foundation
Special Prizes - The Old Japan Students'
Association, Thailand (OJSAT) /
"Japanese Mothers for Foreign Students" Movement of the Tokyo YWCA /
Warsaw University, Oriental Studies Institute, Department of Japanese and Korean Studies
Makoto Ooka (Japan) Poet
Makoto Ooka, who is involved in broad ranging literary activities in the field
of "words" as a poet and a critic, and who possesses deep analytic
powers as a historian, has made an enormous contribution both at home and
abroad toward dissemination of the charm of the Japanese language. His unstinting
efforts toward the development of linked-verse (renshi) exchange with
the poets and literati of the world, the first experiment of its kind ever
carried out, have served to carve out new horizons for cultural exchange and
international exchange in the field of literature, as a result of which he
has gained great renown as a "cultural emissary" of Japanese culture
and literature.
The Linked-Verse (Renshi) Experiment
Poets from various foreign countries who meet for the first
time spend several days face-to-face for the purpose of creating a new
style of poem invented by Mr. Ooka, who has spent more than twenty years
putting it into practice.
He has revived the traditional group production method of renga and renku,
which was one of the basic principles of poetic creation in ancient Japan,
in the context of contemporary poetry. He calls his experiment renshi (linked
verse), and he has attracted the attention of overseas scholars of contemporary
Japanese studies and poets by this unique experiments. Poets from all parts
of Europe and America participate, under his guidance, in his renshi activities,
creating poetry through interpreters. It appears that renshi has established
itself in all the countries of the world today.
Brief Personal History
| 1953 | B.A., Japanese literature department of the Faculty of Letters, University of Tokyo |
|---|---|
| 1953-63 | Worked in the foreign news department of the Yomiuri Newspaper |
| 1965 | Assistant professor at Meiji University |
| 1970-87 | Professor at Meiji University |
| 1974- | Director of the Japan Artists Association |
| 1979-81 | Chairman of the Japan Contemporary Poets Society |
| 1988-94 | Professor at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music |
| 1989-94 | Chairman of the Japan PEN Club |
| 1995- | Member of the Japan Arts Academy |
Awards Received
| 1993 | Cultural Prize of the Municipality of Tokyo |
|---|---|
| 1993 | Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (France) |
| 1995 | Japan Academy of the Arts Prize for poetry and criticism |
| 1996 | Asahi Prize |
| 1996 | Golden Wreath of the Struga Poetry Evenings, Macedonia |
| 1997 | Cultural Merit Award |
Major Publications
The Colors of Poetry: Essays on Classic Japanese Verse (Sante
Fe: Katydid Books, 1991. Co-authors: Thomas Fitzsimmons, Donald Keene,
Takako Lento, Thomas Lento).
A Poet's Anthology: The Range of Japanese Poetry (Sante Fe: Katydid
Books, 1994. Translated into English by Janine Beichman).
What the Kite Thinks: A Linked Poem by Makoto Ooka, Wing Tek Lum, Joseph
Stanton, and Jean Yamasaki Toyama (Manoa: University of Hawaii Press,
1994).
The Poetry and Poetics of Ancient Japan (Santa Fe: Katydid Books, 1997. Translated
into English by Thomas Fitzsimmons).
Dans l'océan du silence (Paris: Voix d'encre, 1998. Translated
into French by Dominique Palmé).
Oriori no Uta: Poems for all seasons (Tokyo: Kodansha International,
2000. Translated into English by Janine Beichman).