Community hub
Recent from talks
Contribute something to knowledge base
Content stats: 0 posts, 0 articles, 0 media, 0 notes
Members stats: 0 subscribers, 0 contributors, 0 moderators, 0 supporters
Subscribers
Supporters
Contributors
Moderators
Hub AI
Ken Hirano AI simulator
(@Ken Hirano_simulator)
Hub AI
Ken Hirano AI simulator
(@Ken Hirano_simulator)
Ken Hirano
Ken Hirano (平野 謙, Hirano Ken; October 30, 1910 – April 3, 1978) was the pen name of a prominent Japanese literary critic and longtime professor of literature at Meiji University. His real name was Akira Hirano (平野 朗, Hirano Akira).
Hirano was one of the seven founders of the journal Kindai Bungaku ("Modern Literature"), and played a starring role in the "politics and literature debates" of the 1940s and 1950s, as well as the "pure literature debate" of the early 1960s. In 1977, he was awarded the prestigious Imperial Prize from the Japan Art Academy.
Ken Hirano was born Akira Hirano in Kyoto, Japan on October 30, 1910. His father was a Buddhist monk who wrote literary criticism on the side. When he was five years old, Hirano's family moved to Gifu prefecture, where he grew up. As a teenager, Hirano refused his father's wish that he follow in his footsteps and become a monk, and instead enrolled in Eighth High School in Nagoya, where he was classmates with Shūgo Honda and Shizuo Fujieda.
In 1930, Hirano enrolled at Tokyo Imperial University, but dropped out in 1933, before re-enrolling in 1937 and graduating with a degree in literature in 1940. During his university years, Hirano became involved in illegal Marxist organizing as well as the Proletarian literature movement, but distanced himself from these activities as state repression ramped up in wartime. After graduating, Hirano spent part of World War II working in the Cabinet Information Bureau.
In 1945, Hirano co-founded the influential literary journal Kindai Bungaku, along with Shūgo Honda, Yutaka Haniya, Masahito Ara, Kiichi Sasaki, Hideo Odagiri, and Shizuka Yamamuro.
In 1946, Hirano touched off the so-called "politics and literature debate" (seiji to bungaku ronsō) when he published his essay "Hitotsu no hansōtei" ("An Antithesis") in the journal Shinseikatsu. Thereafter, a vigorous debate emerged between the proletarian writers affiliated with the New Japanese Literature Association (Shin Nihon Bungakkai) and those affiliated with Hirano's Kindai Bungaku group. Hirano called for the proletarian writers in the New Japanese Literature Association to carry out more thoroughgoing self-reflection regarding their wartime responsibility. More importantly, Hirano criticized the "primacy of politics" (seiji no yūisei) in their literature, and called for a more diverse literature that honored each author's individuality. Hirano was supported in his stance by Masahito Ara, Kiichi Sasaki, Hideo Odagiri, and others, and was vigorously opposed by Nakano Shigeharu, Korehito Kurahara, and others associated with the New Japanese Literature Association.
From 1950 Hirano accepted a position as a professor of literature at newly-formed Sagami Women's University. In 1957, he moved to Meiji University, where he taught until his death in 1978.
In 1960, Hirano set off the so-called "Parutai debate" (Parutai ronsō) when he wrote a glowing review of previously unknown author Yumiko Kurahashi's short story "Parutai" ("The Party"), a satirical piece which acutely mocked the bureaucratic dogmatism of Japan Communist Party (although not mentioning it directly by name), and then used his influence to have the story republished in the prominent literary magazine Bungakukai. In literary journals, Japanese writers and critics debated whether Kurahashi's story had any "literary merit" and the propriety of Hirano's promoting it, in what became a proxy war for competing views on the influence of the Communist Party in the literary world. Historian Nick Kapur argues that the Parutai debate also reflected unspoken displeasure within the male-dominated literary world that a critic as prominent as Hirano was promoting the work of a young female author, in their view at the expense of males.
Ken Hirano
Ken Hirano (平野 謙, Hirano Ken; October 30, 1910 – April 3, 1978) was the pen name of a prominent Japanese literary critic and longtime professor of literature at Meiji University. His real name was Akira Hirano (平野 朗, Hirano Akira).
Hirano was one of the seven founders of the journal Kindai Bungaku ("Modern Literature"), and played a starring role in the "politics and literature debates" of the 1940s and 1950s, as well as the "pure literature debate" of the early 1960s. In 1977, he was awarded the prestigious Imperial Prize from the Japan Art Academy.
Ken Hirano was born Akira Hirano in Kyoto, Japan on October 30, 1910. His father was a Buddhist monk who wrote literary criticism on the side. When he was five years old, Hirano's family moved to Gifu prefecture, where he grew up. As a teenager, Hirano refused his father's wish that he follow in his footsteps and become a monk, and instead enrolled in Eighth High School in Nagoya, where he was classmates with Shūgo Honda and Shizuo Fujieda.
In 1930, Hirano enrolled at Tokyo Imperial University, but dropped out in 1933, before re-enrolling in 1937 and graduating with a degree in literature in 1940. During his university years, Hirano became involved in illegal Marxist organizing as well as the Proletarian literature movement, but distanced himself from these activities as state repression ramped up in wartime. After graduating, Hirano spent part of World War II working in the Cabinet Information Bureau.
In 1945, Hirano co-founded the influential literary journal Kindai Bungaku, along with Shūgo Honda, Yutaka Haniya, Masahito Ara, Kiichi Sasaki, Hideo Odagiri, and Shizuka Yamamuro.
In 1946, Hirano touched off the so-called "politics and literature debate" (seiji to bungaku ronsō) when he published his essay "Hitotsu no hansōtei" ("An Antithesis") in the journal Shinseikatsu. Thereafter, a vigorous debate emerged between the proletarian writers affiliated with the New Japanese Literature Association (Shin Nihon Bungakkai) and those affiliated with Hirano's Kindai Bungaku group. Hirano called for the proletarian writers in the New Japanese Literature Association to carry out more thoroughgoing self-reflection regarding their wartime responsibility. More importantly, Hirano criticized the "primacy of politics" (seiji no yūisei) in their literature, and called for a more diverse literature that honored each author's individuality. Hirano was supported in his stance by Masahito Ara, Kiichi Sasaki, Hideo Odagiri, and others, and was vigorously opposed by Nakano Shigeharu, Korehito Kurahara, and others associated with the New Japanese Literature Association.
From 1950 Hirano accepted a position as a professor of literature at newly-formed Sagami Women's University. In 1957, he moved to Meiji University, where he taught until his death in 1978.
In 1960, Hirano set off the so-called "Parutai debate" (Parutai ronsō) when he wrote a glowing review of previously unknown author Yumiko Kurahashi's short story "Parutai" ("The Party"), a satirical piece which acutely mocked the bureaucratic dogmatism of Japan Communist Party (although not mentioning it directly by name), and then used his influence to have the story republished in the prominent literary magazine Bungakukai. In literary journals, Japanese writers and critics debated whether Kurahashi's story had any "literary merit" and the propriety of Hirano's promoting it, in what became a proxy war for competing views on the influence of the Communist Party in the literary world. Historian Nick Kapur argues that the Parutai debate also reflected unspoken displeasure within the male-dominated literary world that a critic as prominent as Hirano was promoting the work of a young female author, in their view at the expense of males.