Background
Hagiwara Sakutarō was born on November 1, 1886 in Maebashi, Gunma Prefecture as the son of a prosperous local physician.
Hagiwara Sakutarō was born on November 1, 1886 in Maebashi, Gunma Prefecture as the son of a prosperous local physician.
At age 15 Sakutarō Hagiwara discovered literature and began writing classical verse, which he submitted to literary magazines. He refused to become a doctor, which precluded him from inheriting the hospital his father had founded. He left Sixth Higher School without graduating to edit Hakushu Kitahara's poetry magazine titled "Feeling".
His mother bought him his first mandolin in the summer of 1903. In 1911, when his father was still trying to get him to enter college again, he began studying the mandolin in Tokyo, with the thought of becoming a professional musician. He later established a mandolin orchestra in his hometown Maebashi. His bohemian lifestyle was criticized by his childhood colleagues, and some of his early poems include spiteful remarks about his native Maebashi.
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 1916, Hagiwara co-founded with Murō Saisei the literary magazine "Kanjō" ("Sentiment") and published his first book of poetry "Tsuki ni hoeru" ("Howling at the Moon"), which irreversibly transformed modern Japanese verse. Hagiwara contended that “psychic terror” distinguished his work, and the first poem of the collection describes the nightmare of being buried alive. In his second poetry collection, Aoneko (1923; “Blue Cat”), Hagiwara presented himself as a cheerless and tormented man thirsting for affection. These two collections established his reputation as a poet. His difficult style was not immediately understood, although one of the leaders of the Japanese literary world, the novelist Mori Ōgai, was impressed by his mode of expression.
Hagiwara’s last collection of free verse "Hyōtō" (1934; "Isle of Ice"), explores his sense of having never been accepted; its first poem concludes, "Your home shall be no place!" Prose poems appear in "Shukumei" (1939; “Fate”), which critiques the smothering of individuality by group life. Hagiwara also published a collection of aphorisms "Atarashiki yokujo" (1922; “Fresh Passions”), which expresses his sensual philosophy, and several collections of essays.
Besides, Hagiwara worked as an instructor at the University of Meiji during 1934-1942.
Over his long career, Hagiwara published many volumes of essays, literary and cultural criticism, and aphorisms. His pathetic and sensual poetry impressed poetic circles of his time. He is said to have created a new musical rhythm to the Japanese language. His unique style of verse expressed his doubts about existence, and his fears, ennui, and anger through the use of dark images and unambiguous wording.
After more than six months of struggle with what appeared to be lung cancer but which doctors diagnosed as acute pneumonia, Sakutarō Hagiwara died on May 11, 1942 in Tokyo, Japan.
Hagiwara married Ueda Ineko in 1919, they had two daughters, Yōko (1920-2005) and Akirako (b. 1922). Ineko deserted her family for a younger man in June 1929 and ran off to Hokkaidō and Sakutarō formally divorced her in October. He married again in 1938 to Otani Mitsuko, but after only eighteen months Sakutarō’s mother - who had never registered the marriage in the family register (koseki) - drove her away.