著者

千野 明日香

出版者

法政大学文学部

雑誌

法政大学文学部紀要 = Bulletin of Faculty of Letters, Hosei University (ISSN:04412486)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.56, pp.13-25, 2008-03-10

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Asao Hara (1888-1969) was a female tanka poet who was active during the Taisho and Showa periods. Her first anthology of tanka poems, Ruikon, which was published in 1913, brought her into the limelight. It has been believed that Ruikon was published with the support of Akiko Yosano, Asao's mentor. It was later found that an unknown young man named Yoshino Nishino (1891-1973)actually planned and managed to publish Ruikon. There are a total of 45 letters written by Nishino in the Asao Hara Museum in Miyagi prefecture and the National Diet Library. These letters show the background of the publication of Ruikon and witness the situation of local publishing in the early Taisho period. Yoshio Nishino was a young literary enthusiast in Hiroshima. For some unknown reason,he suddenly decided to leave Japan and set out on a journey around the sping of 1913. He wanted to bring a tanka anthology of his own compilation whit him in memory of Japan. Since Nishino loved Asao's tanka poems,he wrote to Asao and offered to publish an anthology of her poems. Asao accepted the offer and wrote back to him. However,the publication conditions in Hiroshima at that time were poor and the anthology,wicth was printed in May of 1913, turned out to be a complete failure due to the poor type and paper quality. Greatly disappointed, Nishino discarded most of the printed books. Later in July,he republished the anthology after changing the paper and re-editing it. Thus, there are two different versions of the first edition of Ruikon. In the middle of July, Nishino left Hiroshima to visit Asao in Miyagi to say goodbye to her. In August, Nishino departed from the port of Yokohama on the emigrant ship Kiyo-Maru. After landing at Can ete, Peru, he went to Argentina through Chile. Early in the Showa period, he returned to Japan. He would later return to Argentina where he died in 1973. He spent his entire life as a wanderer and never had a regular job. While he cherished the memory of Asao all his life, he never had a chance to meet her again. For Asao, Nishino was an unforgettable benefactor. In her second anthology Shiromukuge, she dedicated a series of poems to Nishino. The model for this series was only recently identified.