Kaitarō Hasegawa
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Kaitarō Hasegawa | |
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Native name | |
Born | Akadomari, Niigata, Japan | 17 January 1900
Died | 29 June 1935 Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan | (aged 35)
Resting place | Myohon-ji, Kamakura, Japan |
Occupation | Writer |
Language | Japanese |
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Kaitarō Hasegawa (
Early life[edit]
Kaitarō Hasegawa was born on 17 January 1900 on Sado Island in the village of Akadomari, Sado District (present-day Sado), Niigata Prefecture, the eldest son of Kiyoshi Hasegawa, a newspaper journalist and former English teacher at the local junior high school. Hasegawa's brother was novelist Shirō Hasegawa. His older brother was a painter, and his younger brother was a translator of Russian literature. His family relocated to Hakodate, Hokkaidō, when he was young and Hasegawa was exposed to a cosmopolitan environment with many foreign influences at an early age. He was accepted at Meiji University in Tokyo, but in 1918 quit his studies and travelled to the United States on the Nippon Yusen steamer Katori Maru, and worked as a cook while studying at Oberlin College in Ohio. It is not certain whether or not he actually graduated, but in August 1920, he decided to leave school and experience life by wandering all over the United States sightseeing and taking notes on his experiences. In 1924, he returned to Japan by working his way on cargo vessels, via South America, Australia and Dalian in the Kwantung Leased Territory, from which he went overland via Korea back to Japan. He intended to return across the Pacific to complete an around-the-world journey, but was refused a visa due to increasingly restrictive immigration rules by the United States, and decided to remain in Japan to try his luck as a writer.
Literary career[edit]
Soon after his return to Japan in 1924, Hasegawa used the pen-name of Tani Jōji (
Hasegawa also wrote semi-historical novels under the pen-name Hayashi Fubō (
In 1928, Chūō Kōron sponsored a round-the-world trip for Hasegawa, together with his wife, lasting for one year, in exchange for essays and stories set in each port of call. The couple visited fourteen countries, and during this time, Hasegawa used the pen-name Maki Itsuma (
On his return to Japan, Hasegawa was offered the use of a suite at the Imperial Hotel, Tokyo, but from 1929 settled in Kamakura, where he remained until his death in 1935 of acute bronchial asthma. His grave is at the temple of Myohon-ji in Kamakura.
References[edit]
- Campbell, Alan. Japan: An Illustrated Encyclopedia . Kodansha (1993). ISBN 406205938X
- Standish, Isolde. New History of Japanese Cinema. Bloomsbury Academic (2006) ISBN 1441161546