Ōmi Komaki

Ōmi Komaki
Ōmi Komaki
Born	11 May 1894(1894-05-11) Akita prefecture, Japan
Died	29 October 1978(1978-10-29) (aged 84) Kamakura, Japan
Occupation	writer and translator
Genres	translations of French literature, essays, poetry
Literary movement	Proletarian Literature Movement.
Influences Romain Rolland, Henri Barbusse

In this Japanese name, the family name is "Komaki".

Ōmi Komaki (小牧 近江, Komaki Ōmi^?, 11 May 1894 – 29 October 1978) was the pen-name of a scholar and translator of French literature in Taishō period and Showa period Japan. His real name was Komaki Omiya.

Early life

Komaki was born in what is now part of Akita city, Akita prefecture, as the son of a politician. He dropped out of middle school in order to accompany his father to an international conference of legislators in France, and stayed on, working his way through the Law Department of Paris University. He was greatly influenced by the philosophy of Romain Rolland and the Clarte (Light) movement of the French novelist, Henri Barbusse, which encouraged him to participate in pacifist activities.

Literary career

Komaki returned to Japan in 1919 and founded a literary magazine named Tane Maku Hito (The Sowers), after the famous painting by the French painter Jean-François Millet. He used this as his platform to promote his pacifist and Marxist ideals through poems and essays, many of which he wrote. He was one of the first Japanese members of Comintern, and a pioneer in the Proletarian Literature Movement. The movement attracted the attention of Arishima Takeo, and other noted leftist writers. In 1924 another literary magazine Bungei Sensen (Literary Battlefront) spun out from the original Tane Maku Hito group.

When Komaki had spare time from promoting communist revolution and avoiding the thought police, he worked at translating works of French literature into Japanese. His most noted works are translations of Charles-Louis Philippe's Dans la Petite Ville and André Gide's biography, Charles-Louis Philippe.

After World War II, Komaki became a professor at Hosei University, and continued to pursue his pacifist and Marxist philosophies.

His works include Ikoku no Senso (Other Countries’ Wars) and Furansu Kakumei Yobanashi (Evening Conversations on the French Revolution).

Komaki relocated from Tokyo to Kamakura, Kanagawa prefecture in 1925. He later spent some years in French Indochina, but returned after World War II to Kamakura, where he lived until his death in 1978 at the age of 84.

See also

• Japanese literature
• List of Japanese authors

References

• Hojo, Tsunehisa. Tane maku hito Komaki Omi no seishun. Chikuma Shobo (1995). ISBN 4480823212 (Japanese)
• Keene, Donald. Dawn to the West. Columbia University Press (1998). ISBN 0231114354

External links

• Literary Figures from Kamakura

Persondata
Name	Komaki, Omi
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	11 May 1894
Place of birth	Akita prefecture, Japan
Date of death	29 October 1978
Place of death	Kamakura, Japan