Takeda, Taijun 1912–1976

PERSONAL: Born February 12, 1912, in Tokyo, Japan; died October 5, 1976.

CAREER: Taught Chinese literature at Hokkaido University before becoming a full-time writer.

AWARDS, HONORS: Noma literary award, for Memai no suru sampo, 1976.

WRITINGS:

(With Takeo Oda) Yosuko bungaku fudoki, 1941.

Ssu-ma Ch'in, 1942.

Mamushi no sue, Shimpan, 1948.

Mirai no injo, 1951.

Fubaika, 1952.

Ten tochi no kekkon, 1953.

Runinto ni te, 1953.

Ai to chikai, 1953.

Miru kiku kangaeru, 1957.

Seijika no bunsho, 1960.

Mori to mizuumi no matsuri, 1962.

Waga Chugoku sho, 1963.

Ai no katachi, 1963.

Nihon no fufu, 1963.

This Outcast Generation, Luminous Moss, translated by Yusaburo Shibuya and Sanford Goldstein, Tuttle (Rutland, VT), 1967.

Yosuko no hotori, 1967.

Wagako Kirisuto, 1968.

Kizeku no kaidan, 1968.

Shufu shuuhito o shusatsusu, 1968.

Shin Tokaido goj usantsugi, 1969.

Watakushi no naka no jigoku, 1972.

Fuji, 1973.

Konnyaku mond o, 1973.

(With Shokin Furuta) Nigen ika ni ikubeki ka, 1973.

Takeda Taijun Chugoku shosetsu shu, 1974.

Shanhai no hotaru, 1976.

Memai no suru sampo, 1976.

Watakushi no eiga kanshoho, Ushio Shuppansha (Tokyo, Japan), 1978.

Also author of Shibasen, Shiki no seki, Hikarigoke, Igyo no mono, and Seisei ruten (title means "Lives in Vicissitudes").

SIDELIGHTS: Japanese writer Takeda Taijun was described by Kojin Karatani in Karatani Forum online as "one of the many intellectuals who participated in the Marxist movement of the 1930s." According to Karatani, Takeda's approach to Marxism derived from a Buddhist background. Takeda, whose father was a Buddhist priest, was born in a Buddhist temple, and he served as a Buddhist monk before devoting himself to a literary career. "For Takeda," wrote Karatani,"Buddhism was not an idea, but an actual institution and a way of life." Karatani affirmed that Takeda endeavored "to place the dogma about the world—the existent Hegel-Marxist idea itself—within the historical space the dogma can never transcend."

Takeda studied Chinese literature and taught the subject at Hokkaido University before pursuing a literary career. His writings include Ssu-ma Ch'in, which Karatani called "one of Japanese modernity's great achievements" and "one of the most essential and radical criticisms written in twentieth century Japan." Ssu-ma Ch'in, a former leftist and Han dynasty writer who participated in the Japanese invasion of China, was accused of treason, and he accepted castration rather that execution so he could continue writing the work known in English as The Grand Scribe's Records. "It is possible to say that Takeda identified with Ssu-ma Ch'in," wrote Karatani, but the critic added that "it was the structure of The Grand Scribe's Records and not a psychology of Ssu-ma Ch'in that Takeda was involved in."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, February 1, 1968, review of This Outcast Generation, Luminous Moss, p. 627.

Bungaku, Volume 44, 1976, "Takeda Taijun Ron."

Library Journal, October 15, 1967, review of This Outcast Generation, Luminous Moss, p. 3662.

ONLINE

Karatani Forum Online, http://www.karataniforum.org/ (June 7, 2001), Kojin Karatani, "Buddhism, Marxism, and Fascism—On Sakaguchi Ango and Takeda Taijun."

Noma Literary Award Web site, http://www.csua.berkeley.edu/∼raytrace/lit/awards/noma.html/ (September 23, 2005).