Mitsuharu Kaneko

Kaneko Mitsuharu (Japanese金子 光 晴; * 1895 in Tsushima, Aichi Prefecture, † 1975) was a Japanese anti-militarist poet and painter, who spent his formative years in Belgium.

• 2.1 Notes and references

Journey

Kaneko Mitsuharu 1895 in Aichi Prefecture as the son of a liquor store owner under the name Oga Yasukazu (大 鹿 安和) born. His father gave him a little more successful than he was two years, up for adoption in the wealthy Kaneko family in Nagoya. The adoptive father Kaneko Sotaro was the son of a farmer pension from Edo, who at that directed the destinies of the construction company Shimizu- gumi and a bon vivant of the old school (通人, tsūjin ) was. 1901 the family moved to Kyoto, five years later to Tokyo. From 1908 Mitsuharu visited the French mission school Gyosei Gakuin whose severity did not suit him. After 1914, he briefly attended the preparatory school of Waseda University.

Even as a 6 -year-old him of Hyakkei (百 圭) was given lessons in classical tsuketate - hō style. At age 11 (1906 ), he became a student of Kobayashi Kiyochika (小林 清 亲; 1847-1915 ). After termination of the preparatory school he visited the branch for Japanese-style painting ( Nihonga ka) Academy of Art Tokyo. He graduated from any high school.

First trip to Europe

Under the title Akatsuchi no Ie Kaneko 1919 appeared the first volume of poetry, self-published. In February this year he went from Kobe aboard the Sado Maru along with the antique dealer and friend of the family Kojiro Suzuki to Europe. Suzuki realized during the crossing, that his companion had no talent to the merchant, but more should study art. To this end, he put him in May, the Belgian art collector Ivan Lepage (1883-1947) before. Lepage led Kaneko in European art and mediated contacts. Kaneko was a friend of the family and lived at that time in a guest house near their place of residence in Diegem, near Brussels. He recorded and produced watercolors, at the same time he read works of Baudelaire and Emile Verhaeren. In November 1920, he traveled for two weeks to Paris, then to Marseille, where he took the trip back to Japan in December.

After his return he published in July 1923 Koganemushi (こがね 蟲, GV " A scarab "). Soon after, he learned Michiyo Mori (1905-1977), whom he after he had her pregnant, married in July 1924. The relationship remained turbulent, but also "open".

Second trip to Europe

Among other things, for his wife to be separated from their lovers, Kaneko joined in September 1928 his second trip to Europe, both of which led through various stations in Asia in January 1930 to Paris. The couple was constantly short of money, so Michiyo adopted a position at a Japanese company in Antwerp. Mitsuharu remained at first, then traveled in January 1931 to Brussels, where he renewed his friendship with the family Lepage and started mainly to paint watercolors. The couple divorced amicably at the consulate in Antwerp on March 9, 1931. In autumn they lived together again in Brussels. Lepage helped Kaneko exhibit his paintings, the family kept some that had not sold in possession. Poetic inspiration he found to this time, no.

After 1932

After his return to Japan in 1932 Kaneko wrote Symbolist poems that criticized the Japanese militarist imperialism. During the war he published nothing, then he turned aüßerst productive to the realism.

October 1937 to early 1928, he traveled with Michiyo by the Japanese-occupied northern part of China.

Kaneko Michiyo married again in 1953, not without other relationships to have had. In the same year he received the Yomiuri Literary Prize in the category of poetry. He died in 1975, just before all the volumes of his collected works were published.

Family

His wife Michiyo was also a poet and expert on classic literature of which they several works, including the Tosa Nikki, rendered into modern language. With a son, who bears the name of the mother, Mori Ken had (* March 1925 ).

Art, literature and sources

• Collected Works: Kaneko Mitsuharu Zenshu. Tokyo 1975-77, 15 volumes
• A Wandering Poet- Painter: Kaneko Mitsuharu. In: WF Vanden Walle, David de Coonman (ed.): Japan & Belgium: Four Centuries of Exchange. Brusseles / Aichi 2005, ISBN 2-9600491-0-1
• Iijima Koichi (ed.): Nenkan koganemushi: Kaneko Mitsuharu Kenkyu. Tokyo 1988 ( Kaneko Mitsuharu no kai; series 6 issues )
• Painting: Kawamura Bun'ichiro: Kaneko Mitsuharu GAJO. Tokyo 1981
• James Morita: Kaneko Mitsuharu. Boston in 1980, Twayne 's World Author Series, № 555