Tsuneari Fukuda
Tsuneari Fukuda | |
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Born | |
Died | 20 November 1994 Ōiso, Kanagawa, Japan | (aged 82)
Alma mater | University of Tokyo |
Occupation(s) | Dramatist, translator, literary critic |
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Conservatism in Japan |
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Tsuneari Fukuda (
His criticism of the pacifist Japanese establishment of the early post-Second World War era earned him early notoriety, though he is most well known for his translations of William Shakespeare's oeuvre into Japanese, starting with Hamlet in 1955. He was a frequent contributor to conservative magazines, such as Bungeishunjū, Shokun, and Jiyū. Called a "rhetorician", and a "conjuror of controversy", he frequently used cognitive reframing in his discourse.[2]
Life
[edit]Tsuneari Fukuda was born to Kōshirō and Masa Fukuda on 25 August 1912 in the Hongō ward (now part of the Bunkyō special ward) of Tokyo. His name "Tsuneari" was chosen by novelist Ishibashi Shian, and originates from the works of the Chinese philosopher Mencius.[1] He attended Tokyo Imperial University, where he studied English literature, graduating in 1936. His graduate thesis was entitled "Ethical issues in the works of D. H. Lawrence".
After graduating, Fukuda worked as a secondary school teacher and a publisher.[1] He began his long career as a literary critic with a contribution to the Kōdō bungaku literary magazine in 1937, the article entitled "Riichi Yokomitsu and The Author's Secret". Before and just after the Second World War, he wrote critiques of the works of Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Isota Kamura, and other modern Japanese writers. In 1947, Fukuda's article Ippiki to kyūjūhiki to (
What made Fukuda famous, however, was his status as a lone conservative voice amidst a flourishing of progressive thought in post-Second World War Japan. In his 1954 article Heiwaron no susumekata ni tsuite no gimon (
His representative works as a literary translator include Shakespeare's Macbeth, Hamlet, Richard III and A Midsummer Night's Dream, Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, and Oscar Wilde's Salome and The Picture of Dorian Gray.
In the 1950s, Fukuda also wrote and produced plays, including Kitty Typhoon and also The Man Who Stroked a Dragon.[3] He was linked to Shingeki, and in 1955 he did a production of Hamlet with Hiroshi Akutagawa, son of Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, playing the lead role. He also wrote a 1957 essay Directing Shakespeare, which dealt with his views on the subject of directing Shakespearean plays. Later he did a Japanese version, based on his translation, of A Midsummer Night's Dream.[4] In addition, he helped found the Kumo Theatre Company (present-day Theatre Company Subaru) and received the Yomiuri Prize multiple times.[5]
He died at the age of 82 from complications related to pneumonia at Tōkai University Ōiso Hospital on 20 November 1994.[1]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b c d "
福田 恆 存 ~〈戦後 〉に異議 あり保守 の論客 ~" (PDF) (in Japanese).神奈川 県立 図書館 . 2014. Retrieved 28 July 2014. - ^ Takeuchi, Yō (2012). メディアと
知識 人 -清水 幾太郎 の覇権 と忘却 (in Japanese).中央公論 新 社 . p. 308. ISBN 978-4120044052. - ^ "Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre and Performance: Fukuda Tsuneari". Answers.com. Retrieved 1 December 2013.
- ^ Kishi, Tetsuo; Bradshaw, Graham (19 December 2006). Shakespeare in Japan by Tetsuo Kishi, Graham Bradshaw, pgs 29-53. A&C Black. ISBN 9780826492708. Retrieved 1 December 2013.
- ^ Cody, Gabrielle H.; Sprinchorn, Evert (2007). The Columbia Encyclopedia of Modern Drama, Volume 1 edited by Gabrielle H. Cody and Evert Sprinchorn, pg 497. Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231144223. Retrieved 1 December 2013.