American Book Awards
1 appearances
-
Edition 10 (1989) Winner
Shuntarō Tanikawa
たにかわ しゅんたろう
Tanikawa Shuntarō
Aliases:
Shuntaro Tanikawa
Profile
- Gender
- Male
- Born
- 1931-12-15 （Suginami, Tokyo, Japan）
- Died
- 2024-11-13 （Tokyo, Japan） age 92
- Nationality
- Japan
- Languages
- Japanese
- Residence History
- Tokyo, Japan (born and long-term residence) → New York, USA (residence in 1966)
Career
- Occupations
- Poet, Translator, Lyricist
- Active Years
- 1950-2024
- Nominations
- Nominated for the 2008 Hans Christian Andersen Award (for contributions to children's literature)
Awards
| Year | Award | Work | Category | Organization | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | American Book Award | Floating the River in Melancholy (English translation) | — | Before Columbus Foundation | 受賞 |
| 1983 | Yomiuri Literature Prize | Daily Maps | — | Yomiuri Shimbun | 受賞 |
| 1988 | Noma Children's Literature Prize | Hadaka: A Collection of Poems by Shuntaro Tanikawa | — | Noma Cultural Foundation | 受賞 |
| 1988 | Shogakukan Literature Prize | First Grader | — | Shogakukan | 受賞 |
| 1996 | Asahi Prize | — | — | Asahi Shimbun | 受賞 |
| 2022 | Golden Wreath (Struga Poetry Evenings) | — | — | Struga Poetry Evenings | 受賞 |
| 2019 | Japan Foundation Awards | — | — | The Japan Foundation | 受賞 |
| 2023 | NHK Broadcasting Culture Award | — | — | NHK | 受賞 |
American Book Award
1989
Work:
Floating the River in Melancholy (English translation)
Organization:
Before Columbus Foundation
Result:
受賞
Yomiuri Literature Prize
1983
Work:
Daily Maps
Organization:
Yomiuri Shimbun
Result:
受賞
Noma Children's Literature Prize
1988
Work:
Hadaka: A Collection of Poems by Shuntaro Tanikawa
Organization:
Noma Cultural Foundation
Result:
受賞
Shogakukan Literature Prize
1988
Work:
First Grader
Organization:
Shogakukan
Result:
受賞
Asahi Prize
1996
Organization:
Asahi Shimbun
Result:
受賞
Golden Wreath (Struga Poetry Evenings)
2022
Organization:
Struga Poetry Evenings
Result:
受賞
Japan Foundation Awards
2019
Organization:
The Japan Foundation
Result:
受賞
NHK Broadcasting Culture Award
2023
Organization:
NHK
Result:
受賞
Awards & Nominations
Golden Wreath of Struga Poetry Evenings
1 appearances
-
Edition 57 (2022) Winner
Works
Major Works
Two Billion Light Years of Solitude
1952 PoetryAn early landmark collection expressing solitude and expansive imagination in lyric poems; representative of postwar new sensibilities.
SolitudeExistenceCosmic imaginationEveryday observation
Translations
Floating the River in Melancholy
Poetry (English translation)A collection of poems layering melancholic and visual imagery. The English translation increased his recognition abroad.
MelancholyFlowMemory
Translations
- Translated into English by William I. Elliott and Kazuo Kawamura
Bibliography
- Two Billion Light Years of Solitude (poetry, 1952)
- Sixty-two Sonnets (1953)
- Hadaka (poems)
- Kokoro (2013)
Adaptations
- Theme song lyrics for the film 'Howl's Moving Castle'
Translations by Author
- Peanuts (Charles Schulz) — translation into Japanese
- Mother Goose — translation into Japanese
- Assisted translation of 'Swimmy' (Leo Lionni) into Japanese
Translations of Works
- Onna Ni and other poetry translated into English by William I. Elliott and Kazuo Kawamura (2012)
Style & Themes
- Literary Style
- Free verse with concise, colloquial dictionDistinctive metaphors using visual and sound imageryPlayful voice in children's literature
- Recurring Motifs
- Solitude and distance between peopleDetails of everyday lifeChildhood and memoryNature and flow (rivers, wind)
Legacy
Recognized as one of Japan's leading postwar poets, he left a wide-ranging legacy through translations, contributions to children's literature, and work in film and music. He received numerous awards and his work reached international audiences.
In Popular Culture
- Cultural impact through lyric writing for anime and films, and translations of children's books and comics
Trivia
- Translated Charles Schulz's 'Peanuts' and Mother Goose rhymes into Japanese.
- Declined the 32nd Minister of Education's Art Encouragement Prize in 1982.
- His poems (e.g. 'Onna Ni') have been translated into English (Elliott & Kawamura, 2012).