Shuntaro Tanikawa (©Sankei by Ryosuke Kawaguchi)
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Postwar poet and translator Shuntaro Tanikawa passed away due to natural causes on November 13. He was 92. Renowned for his poetry collections, such as Two Billion Light-Years of Solitude, Tanikawa was also a lyricist, screenwriter, and translator. A funeral service was held with his close family. The chief mourner was his son, Kensaku Tanikawa.
The Making of a Poet
Born in Tokyo, Shuntaro Tanikawa was the only son of Tetsuzo Tanikawa, a philosopher and former president of Hosei University. An only child who his mother doted on, he enjoyed activities like model-making but disliked school.
Opting out of university, he spent his days idly at home, prompting concern from his father. To ease his father's worries, he showed him a notebook of his poems. The notebook reached family friend and poet Tatsuji Miyoshi, who introduced the young unknown to a prestigious literary magazine. Following this, Tanikawa's poetry began garnering attention.
His debut poetry collection, Two Billion Light-Years of Solitude (published in 1952), showcased a poetic world where fresh sensitivity merged with modernism.
Tanikawa became a member of the poetry journal Kai, which brought together promising young talents such as Makoto Ooka and Noriko Ibaragi. He explored a wide range of styles, from prose poetry to linguistic experiments. In addition, he penned innovative hiragana-only poems that focused on the phonetic qualities of the Japanese language.
Awards, Lyrics, and Life
Rich in musicality and rooted in everyday life, Tanikawa's poetry garnered a wide readership. His works have been translated and published in Europe, the United States, and Asia.
Notably, he also contributed to the production of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics documentary film Tokyo Olympiad. Tanikawa worked on radio dramas and translations, including the American comic Peanuts, known for the character Snoopy. Other Tanikawa works include the lyrics for the theme song of the anime Astro Boy.
In 1962, he won the Japan Record Award for Best Lyricist with his Days of the Week Song. Later, in 1975, he received the Japan Translation Culture Award for his Japanese translation of the English nursery rhyme collection Mother Goose Songs.
Also in 1975, Tanikawa was offered the Takami Jun Literary Prize for his work 'Definition' but chose to decline it. He received the Hanatsubaki Prize for Contemporary Poetry for 'Yoshinashi Uta' in 1985. His poetry collection Onna ni earned the Maruyama Toyo Memorial Contemporary Poetry Prize in 1992, and in 1993, he won the Hagiwara Sakutaro Prize for 'Senkichirazu.' In 2010, he won the inaugural Ayukawa Nobuo Prize for 'Tromso Collage,' and in 2019, he was awarded the Japan Foundation Prize.
Regarding his personal life, Tanikawa was married and divorced three times. Eriko Kishida, daughter of playwright Kunio Kishida, was his first wife. Following their divorce, he married actress Tomoko Okubo. His last wife was picture book illustrator Yoko Sano.
Expanding Poetry's Horizons
From the minutiae of daily life to the vast expanse of the universe, Tanikawa's poetry, with its rhythmic and transparent everyday language, was widely adored. An ambitious dream drove his lifelong dedication to poetry: to deliver the same profound emotions through words as one experiences when listening to music.
Human beings on this small orb
sleep, waken and work, and sometimes
wish for friends on Mars.
Universal gravitation is the power of solitudes
pulling each other.
This poem, 'Two Billion Light-Years of Solitude,' melodically captures the collective loneliness of humankind as seen through the transparent eyes of a boy. Blending dry humor with poignant sentiment, it has since become a modern classic.
"Apart from manuscript fees, writing was my only means of livelihood," Tanikawa reflected in an interview. "That's why I had no choice but to continue. I was frustrated by the narrow scope of contemporary poetry and wanted to experiment with different styles to expand my readership."
Timeless Beauty
In contrast to the complex, often inaccessible postwar poetry that alienated readers, Tanikawa focused on the richness of everyday language rooted in daily life. His true brilliance lay in using plain words to lead readers into a profound and expansive world.
The roots of his sensitivity stretch back to an experience from his elementary school days. One morning, the beauty of the sunrise through the branches of a neighbor's false acacia tree captivated him.
"It wasn't joy, anger, sorrow, or pleasure — it was the kind of feeling you get when listening to music. That moment became the foundation of my emotional awareness," he shared.
"I want to present beautiful combinations of the Japanese language," Tanikawa said of his poetry. "My dream is for poetry to be like the flowers of nature — simple, with no particular message or meaning, yet universally appreciated as beautiful."
Poetry that resonates like a timeless melody never fades. Beginning with the lines "To live, to be alive," his poem 'Living' was frequently recited after the Great East Japan Earthquake. For the survivors, it was a gentle source of comfort for their sorrow.
Although familiar to many from his poems in Japanese language textbooks, Shuntaro Tanikawa rejected notions of authority, saying, "I dislike power. I'd rather be the clown."
Even in his later years, he faithfully composed and refined his poetry on his beloved Mac, perfecting each line with care. In today's world, impulsive and harsh words often dominate. That is why Tanikawa's meticulously crafted, minimalist expressions continue to serve as a calming oasis for countless hearts.
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Author: The Sankei Shimbun
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