Murō Saisei
| Murō Saisei | |
|---|---|
| Born |
1 August 1889 Kanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan |
| Died | 26 March 1962 (aged 72) |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Genre | poetry, novel |
Murō Saisei (室生 犀星, 1 August 1889 - 26 March 1962) was a famous poet and novelist in modern Japanese literature from Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture.
His real name was Murō Terumichi. Born in 1889, he was given birth by his mother Haru, who was never formally married to his father, Kobata Yozaemon-kichidane, a low-ranked military commander from the Kobata family. Right after his birth, he was adopted by Akai Hatsu, a common-law wife of Muro Shinjo, the chief priest at Uho Temple (真言宗寺院雨宝院). He gained his Muro family name at the age of seven when he was formally adopted by his stepfather. He never met his biological parents. The fact that he was born as an illegitimate child has had immense impact on his life and his literature. During his childhood, he was bullied by peers as 'the mistress' child'. At the same time, he craved for a mother he never had. This gave him the burden of having double bind thoughts to his biological mother, such as in the following poem;
Born into the womb of a HIPPU (匹婦：a woman in a very low social position who is considered stupid and worthless) on a summer's day.
This poem was written in 1943 when he was 54 years old - an example of how he was haunted by his childhood for most of his life.
In 1902, he left Kanazawa High Elementary school (equivalent to junior high school today) and started working as a clerk at the Kanazawa Regional Court. His bosses included Haiku-readers such as Kawagoe Bukotsu (河越風骨) and Akakura Kinpu (赤倉錦風) who taught him how to read/compose haiku. After numerous applications to local newspapers, his haiku was first published on October 8, 1904 in Kitakuni-Shimbun. この時の号は照文。 Eventually, he also started writing poems and tanka (a Japanese poem of thirty‐one syllables).
He started to use his pen name - Saisei - in 1906. The name was an attempt to compete against Kokubu Saito, an active kanshi(Chinese-poetry) writer in the Kanazawa area at the time. He choose "Saisei" to mean "West of the Sai-River" which was the place he grew up. The Uho Temple was located on the left side of the River Sai. Saisei adored the atmosphere of this river and the mountainous sceneries up the river.
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