Jun Ishikawa

Novelist and critic. He went by the pen name Isai. He was born on March 7, 1899 in Asakusa, Tokyo, and studied French at the Tokyo School of Foreign Languages. After graduation, he became a French teacher at Fukuoka High School, but eventually resigned. Before his belated literary start with "Kajin" (1935) at the age of 37, he wrote a few novels and essays, and translated several works. The gap between these two periods was a period of training that was filled with the spirit of the author, and together with the intellectual and refined atmosphere of Asakusa, where he spent his childhood, it greatly contributed to the formation of his later years as a writer. After "Kajin," "Ashide" (1935) and "Fugen" (1936, winner of the Akutagawa Prize) were published in succession, both of which are stories of the loss of ideals and rebirth from despair, and in which we can see that what might be called the author's "method" had been established in almost its entirety. His choice of method, which shifts from discovery to invention and from position to movement, his unique theory of novels, which considers the work in conjunction with the movement of the pen, etc. His next work, "The Song of Mars" (1938), was banned from the magazine in which it was published due to its anti-militaristic ideology. As the times moved from the Sino-Japanese War to the Pacific War, the author consistently maintained a stance of resistance to the war, and conducted himself as an anarchist. Although he did not produce many works during the war, he did produce the full-length novel Hakubyo, the biography Watanabe Kazan, the critique Mori Ogai, and the collection of essays Bungaku Taigai, the latter two of which provide excellent guides for understanding this author's literary world.

In stark contrast to the slump during the war, his literary activities blossomed spectacularly after the war. This activity, along with that of Sakunosuke Oda, Osamu Dazai, Ango Sakaguchi, and others, has been lumped together under the name of the Burai or Gesaku school, but this classification is not necessarily correct. On the one hand, this writer was an extremely knowledgeable and cultured writer, and by nature, he was conscious and methodical. The author's novelistic efforts to explore with his pen the possibility of life in fictional places bore fruit in such works as "Virgin Birth" (1947), "Taka" (1953), "The Tale of Shion" (1956), "Asura" (1958), "Aratama" (1963), "A Thousand Years of Bliss" (1965), and "Crazy Wind Chronicles" (1971), while his critical activities produced such essays under the pen name of Isai as "Pen-Transcription," "Pure Words," "Collected Words," "Jozetsu," and "Play," as well as such masterpieces as "Biographies of Eccentrics from All Provinces" and "A Handbook of Edo Literature." It is no exaggeration to say that this author, who is extremely unique in the literary tradition of our country, yet extremely orthodox in terms of literature itself, and his works are one of the great figures in the history of Showa literature.

[Yoshio Izawa]

"The Selected Works of Ishikawa Jun, 17 volumes (1979-1981, Iwanami Shoten)" ▽ "The Complete Works of Ishikawa Jun, 19 volumes (1989-1992, Chikuma Shobo)" ▽ "Ishikawa Jun, by Izawa Yoshio (1961, Yayoi Shobo)" ▽ "The Novels of Ishikawa Jun, by Izawa Yoshio (1992, Iwanami Shoten)" ▽ "A Study of Ishikawa Jun, by Noguchi Takehiko (1969, Chikuma Shobo)" ▽ "Ishikawa Jun, by Sasaki Motokazu (1972, Sojusha)" ▽ "A Study of the Works of Ishikawa Jun, by Yamaguchi Toshio - From 'The Beautiful Woman' to 'Jesus in the Ruins'" (2005, Sobunsha Publishing)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

小説家、評論家。夷斎(いさい)と号す。明治32年3月7日東京・浅草に生まれ、東京外国語学校仏語科に学ぶ。卒業後福岡高校フランス語講師となるが、やがて辞職。作者37歳『佳人』（1935）による遅ればせな文学的出発までに、小説、エッセイの習作若干、翻訳数編がある。この間の空白期はいわば櫛風沐雨(しっぷうもくう)の修業時代であり、作者が幼少期を過ごした浅草の知的な文雅の風土雰囲気とともに、後年の作家の形成に資するところ大であった。『佳人』ののち『葦手(あしで)』（1935）、『普賢(ふげん)』（1936。芥川(あくたがわ)賞受賞）が続いて発表されるが、いずれも理想の喪失と、絶望からの再生の物語であり、またそこには、この作者の「方法」ともいうべきものが、ほぼその全体的な姿において確立されていたことがうかがわれる。発見より発明へ、位置より運動へという方式の選択、ペンの運動とともに考えるというその特異な小説論等々。続く『マルスの歌』（1938）は、その反軍国的思想のゆえに、掲載誌は発禁処分を受けた。時代は日華事変から太平洋戦争へと移っていくが、戦争に対し作者は一貫して抵抗の姿勢を貫き、一個のアナキストとして身を処した。この戦中の間、作品もまた多くはないが、長編小説『白描(はくびょう)』、伝記『渡辺崋山(かざん)』、評論『森鴎外(おうがい)』、エッセイ集『文学大概』があり、とくに後二者はこの作家の文学世界理解のための好個の手引きを提供してくれる。

　戦時中の不振とうって変わって、その文学的活動は戦後華々しく開花した。この活動は、織田作之助、太宰(だざい)治、坂口安吾らのそれとともに、無頼(ぶらい)派ないし戯作(げさく)派の名称で一括されたが、この分類はかならずしも正しくはない。この作家は、一方ではきわめて該博な学識教養をもつ、本質的に意識的かつ方法的な作者である。虚構の場に生活の可能をペンの運動において追究する作者の小説的努力は、『処女懐胎(かいたい)』（1947）、『鷹(たか)』（1953）、『紫苑(しおん)物語』（1956）、『修羅』（1958）、『荒魂(あらたま)』（1963）、『至福千年』（1965）、『狂風記』（1971）などとなって結実し、一方その批評的活動は夷斎の号を冠した『筆談』『清言』『俚言(りげん)』『饒舌(じょうぜつ)』『遊戯』などの諸エッセイのほか、『諸国畸人伝(きじんでん)』『江戸文学掌記』などの秀作を生んだ。わが国の文学的伝統にあってはきわめて特異な、しかし文学そのものからいえばきわめてオーソドックスな、この作家の存在と作品とは、まさに昭和文学史上の一偉観と称して過言ではない。昭和62年12月29日没。

［井沢義雄］

『『石川淳選集』全17巻（1979～1981・岩波書店）』▽『『石川淳全集』全19巻（1989～1992・筑摩書房）』▽『井沢義雄著『石川淳』（1961・彌生書房）』▽『井沢義雄著『石川淳の小説』（1992・岩波書店）』▽『野口武彦著『石川淳論』（1969・筑摩書房）』▽『佐々木基一著『石川淳』（1972・創樹社）』▽『山口俊雄著『石川淳作品研究――「佳人」から「焼跡のイエス」まで』（2005・双文社出版）』

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