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YASUMITSU Hiroko


Izuru Shinmura’s life as a writer: tanka poems and connections with Yamaguchi

山口県立大学学術情報 Volume 10 Page 55-65
published_at 2017-02-28
05.inter_YASUMITSU.pdf
[fulltext] 1.44 MB
Title
文学者としての新村出 : 短歌、そしてやまぐち
Izuru Shinmura’s life as a writer: tanka poems and connections with Yamaguchi
Creators Yasumitsu Hiroko
Source Identifiers
A strong light shines on Izuru Shinmura’s illustrious achievements as a linguist and scholar of Japanese, but his achievements as a writer have not received so much attention. The focus of this paper is therefore on Shinmura’s seldom discussed career as a writer, and particularly from the aspect of his having been born in Yamaguchi. Shinmura is generally well-known for having been a recipient of the Japanese Order of Culture and as the editor of the Kōjien dictionary. The general public probably imagines him as being an inflexible and strict academic giant, but the tanka poems he wrote show his gentler side, with his love of ornamental plants and the natural world, his dislike of conflict and desire to preserve moderation. He was a devoted husband, and loved his children and grandchildren, which shows that he was a kind old man. His admiration for actresses is indicative of his sociable nature. Although Shinmura was born in Yamaguchi it seems that after he left, he only returned to Yamaguchi on three occasions. Notwithstanding his only having lived in Yamaguchi for a very short period, the fact that he wrote an essay using Yamaguchi as a motif indicates that, as far as he was concerned, Yamaguchi was his birthplace and it can be said that it held an unforgettable nostalgia for him to the end of his life. Evidence for this is also shown in the preface he wrote to the posthumous writings of Yamaguchi writer Santōka Taneda. Shinmura wrote that, “We share a connection with the same place”, and “He helps me to reminisce about the town where I was born”.
Languages jpn
Resource Type departmental bulletin paper
Publishers 山口県立大学
Date Issued 2017-02-28
File Version Version of Record
Access Rights open access
Relations
[ISSN]2189-4825