Background

Shinpei Kusano was born on May 12, 1903 in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, into the family of Kaoru and Tome Kusano.

Education

Shinpei Kusano attended Lingnan University in China during 1921 - 1925.

Career

Early in his career, Kusano published his verse and later won recognition nationwide. From 1940 until 1943, he was adviser to the government of the Chinese Republic of Wang Jingwei. At that time he wrote patriotic poems on Mount Fuji in which he combined mythological themes with Pan-Asian thought. In 1983, he was named a person of cultural merit (bunka kōrōsha).

For many years he edited the works of other poets, translated foreign verse, and lectured. Kusano's complete works were published shortly before his death in 1988, in twelve volumes, and English translations of selected poems have been available since the 1960s.

According to James R. Morita in World Literature Today, the translations of Kusano’s poetry have been well received by English-language readers. The collection Mt. Fuji contains verse on the famous mountain that Kusano composed after 1943. Reviewer Morita suggested frogs represented earth and Mt. Fuji the heavens in Kusano’s poetic universe.

Of particular interest have been the poems that portray frogs, often through monologues and dialogues, such as in the collection Asking Myself, Answering Myself. For example, in this work, Kusano depicted a frog’s birthday party, two elder frogs ruminating on hibernation, and a frog’s funeral procession.

Achievements

• Shinpei Kusano is best known for his many brief, moving animal poems and those poems that deal with Mt. Fuji, the highest mountain in the author’s native Japan. He was also recognized for “distinguished service to the culture of the nation” in 1983.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Asking Myself, Answering Myself

    (Asking Myself/ Answering Myself introduces the author to ...)

    1984
  • Frogs and Others 1969
  • Kusano shinpei 2012
  • Poetry of Japan 1975
  • Bōbō hanseiki

Membership

• Japan Pen Club

• Japan Art Academy

• Japan Poets Association

Connections

Father:

Kaoru Kusano

Mother:

Tome Kusano