Sakutarō Hagiwara

At 55 years old, Sakutarō Hagiwara physical status not available right now. We will update Sakutarō Hagiwara's height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, and measurements.

In 1913, Hagiwara published five of his verses in Zamboa ("Shaddock"), a magazine edited by Kitahara Hakushū, who became his mentor and friend. He also contributed verse to Maeda Yugure's Shiika ("Poetry") and Chijō Junrei ("Earth Pilgrimage"), another journal created by Hakushū. The following year, he joined Murō Saisei and the Christian minister Yamamura Bochō in creating the Ningyo Shisha ("Merman Poetry Group"), dedicated to the study of music, poetry, and religion. The three writers called their literary magazine, Takujō Funsui ("Tabletop Fountain"), and published the first edition in 1915.

In 1915, Hagiwara attempted suicide because of his continued ill-health and alcoholism. However, in 1916, Hagiwara co-founded with Murō Saisei the literary magazine Kanjō ("Sentiment"). The magazine was centered on the "new style" of modern Japanese poetry that Hagiwara was developing, in contrast to the highly intellectual and more traditionally structured poems in other contemporary literary magazines. In 1917, Hagiwara brought out his first free-verse collection, Tsuki ni Hoeru ("Howling at the Moon"), which had an introduction by Kitahara Hakushū. The work created a sensation in literary circles. Hagiwara rejected the symbolism and use of unusual words, with consequent vagueness of Hakushū and other contemporary poets in favor of precise wording which appealed rhythmically or musically to the ears. The work met with much critical acclaim, especially for its bleak style, conveying an attitude of pessimism and despair based on modern Western psychological concept of existential angst influenced by the philosophy of Nietzsche. There is a preface to Tsuki ni Hoeru ("Howling at the Moon") written by Hagiwara added in the New York Review Books' 2014 Cat Town (a collection of a number of his works).

Hagiwara's second anthology, Aoneko ("Blue Cat") was published in 1923 to even greater acclaim and Tsuki ni Hoeru. The poems in this anthology incorporated concepts from Buddhism with the nihilism of Arthur Schopenhauer. Hagiwara subsequently published a number of other volumes of cultural and literary criticism. He was also a scholar of classical verse and published Shi no Genri ("Principles of Poetry", 1928). His critical study Ren'ai meika shu ("A Collection of Best-Loved Love Poems", 1931), shows that he had a deep appreciation for classical Japanese poetry, and Kyōshu no shijin Yosa Buson ("Yosa Buson—Poet of Nostalgia", 1936) reveals his respect for the haiku poet Buson, who advocated a return to the 17th century rules of Bashō.

Hyōtō ("The Iceland") published in 1934 was Hagiwara's last major anthology of poetry. He abandoned the use of both free verse and colloquial Japanese, and returned to a more traditional structure with a realistic content. The poems are occasionally autobiographical, and exhibit a sense of despair and loneliness. The work received only mixed reviews. For most of his life, Hagiwara relied on his wealthy family for financial support. However, he taught at Meiji University from 1934 until his death in 1942.

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