Poems of Minashita Kiryū, Yotsumoto Yasuhiro & Soh Sakon

Translated and introduced by Leith Morton

This volume comprises selected translations from the poetry of two important contemporary Japanese poets and one of the major postwar Japanese poets. All three poets have won awards for their poetry and are viewed in Japan as among the leading writers of their time.

Yotsumoto Yasuhiro was born in Osaka in 1959, and was educated at Sophia University in Tokyo, and at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1994 he moved to Germany, where he now lives. His 2002 book Sekai Chūnen Kaigi (World Conference of Middle-Aged Folk) was awarded a number of literary prizes, including the Yamamoto Kenkichi Prize. His 2004 volume of poetry Tsugumi no Gogo (The Close-Mouthed Afternoon) won the Hagiwara Sakutarō Poetry Prize. In 2006, his poetry volume Tsuma no Ugen (Wife at Starboard) was published; this volume was preceded by his Selected Poems. He is active on the Internet with his well-known website: Poetry International Web.

Minashita Kiryū was born in Kanagawa Prefecture in 1970 and was educated at Waseda University. Her first book of poetry Onsoku Heiwa (Sonic Peace) was published in 2005 and the following year was awarded the Nakahara Chūya Poetry Prize. Her second book of poetry Zekkyō (Border Z) was published in 2008 and was awarded the Bansui Poetry Prize. She has also written a volume of essays on the problems facing contemporary Japanese youth.

Soh Sakon (1925-2006) was one of the major postwar Japanese poets. His award –winning volume Moeru Haha (Mother Burning, 1968) is considered one of the landmark poetry books of his era, if not the twentieth century as a whole. He wrote many volumes of verse, a number of which were awarded major literary prizes.

Leith Morton (Professor Emeritus, Tokyo Institute of Technology) has written many books on modern Japanese literature and culture, including: The Alien Within: Representations of the Exotic in Twentieth-Century Japanese Literature (2009), Modernism in Practice: An Introduction to Postwar Japanese Poetry (2004), Poems of Masayo Koike, Ishigaki Rin & Tanikawa Shuntaro (2014). He is also a poet and translator, with over 12 volumes of poetry and poetry translations published, including Tokyo: A Poem in Four Chapters (2006).