Kenji Miyazawa: biography of the Japanese children's writer and poet

Kenji Miyazawa is a famous Japanese children's writer and poet. His works have grown fond of readers from all over the world, and today many writers are familiar with the writer's work.

Biography of Kenji Miyazawa

The biography of the writer begins in Japan, in a small village of Hanamaki. Date of birth of Kenji Miyazawa fell on August 27, 1896. A writer and poet were born in a wealthy family, which in those years was considered prosperous.

In the family in which Kenji Miyazawa grew up, there were five children. The writer was among them the oldest. Although the position of the family was high, Kenji always experienced and considered it wrong that his parents lived so richly thanks to the very small savings of the peasants living nearby. Photos of Kenji Miyazawa are presented in the article.

Education

After graduating from the agricultural school in 1918 in Morioka Kenji Miyazawa for two more years worked at the same place as a post-graduate student. The work of Kenji consisted of a detailed study of soil and land structures. Working in school, the writer independently learned English, German and Esperanto. Kenji had a lot of interests. Besides the love of geology, the poet also liked studying astronomy and biology. After he showed himself to be a brilliant student, his supervisor decided to help Kenji become a professorial assistant.

Family Troubles

Despite the fact that the desire to continue his career in science with a young writer was, the dream did not come true: contradictions and quarrels with his father prevented any further scientific success. The writer's father was determined that his son would continue the usurious family business. However, Miyazawa did not tolerate profit in such a dishonest way: it seemed to him that it was simply disgusting - to get money for those things that the poor peasants give on bail.

Having achieved that he was not attracted to the family business, Kenji abandoned the enterprise, thereby giving direction to his younger brother. Another problem for the family was the full immersion of the eldest son in the teachings of the Buddhist Lotus Sutra. Miyazawa tried to attract his father to his faith, but from this came another quarrel. Such a strong misunderstanding, which met the future writer in his family, pushed him in 1921 on a serious step: leaving everything behind, Kenji leaves for Tokyo to build his career and develop.

The first steps in creativity

It was in Tokyo that Miyazawa became acquainted with the work of one of the most popular poets at the time - Sakutaro Hagiwara. It was the poems of this writer that pushed Miyazawa to his own literary activities. In Tokyo, Kenji lived less than a year. During his arrival in the capital, the writer often went to the meetings of the Nitiren tradition group. It was at this time from the hands of Kenji Miyazawa left many of his stories dedicated to children. However, he had to abandon the inspiring Tokyo and return to his native land, because his parents told the writer that his sister was very ill.

Sharp change of activity

The writer's sister was not cured. Her death greatly shook the poet's composure. After the funeral, Miyazawa dedicates three poems to his sister, in which he bids farewell to her.

At the end of 1921, the poet arranged for a school, from which he had not so long ago resigned, as a teacher. Students perceived the writer as an eccentric, because Miyazawa demanded that learning be built on the personal experience of each, so that practical and factual knowledge was the most important element in learning. Kenji often spent his lessons with his small pupils in nature, but, in addition, he took the kids with him on hikes to the mountains, to rivers, to the fields.

Return to Literary Activity

Miyazawa decided to return to writing and in 1922 he left for Southern Sakhalin. The writer believed that it was there that he could create an extraordinary work about death. And he was not mistaken - it was on Sakhalin that Kenji managed to do a great job on an allegorical novel, which was called "Night on the Galactic Railway".

Material and financial difficulties

The writer's financial situation was very difficult. Not having stable earnings, Kenji still managed to save some money for his creativity. It is to these savings in 1924 that Miyazawa publishes his first collection of short stories, intended for a children's audience - "Restaurant with a large selection of dishes." The writer spent the remaining money on publishing his collection of poems, however, there was not enough money to print the full collection of the tools, so only a small part was published.

It did not bring any financial resources. However, the work of Kenji Miyazawa was very popular among members of literary circles, and they soon transferred the collections to a world where literature was more important than anything else.

Death of Kenji

Heavy physical work order worn out the writer. In addition, over the years, Miyazawa suffered from tuberculosis, and then the writer was found and pleurisy, which he tried to cure. The poet managed to escape from pleurisy for a short time, but after a while the illness returned and chained Kenji to bed until the very end. Kenzi Miyazawa died on September 21, 1933.