Taro Tominaga

Japanese: 富永太郎 - とみなが・たろう

Year of death: November 12, 1925
Year of birth: May 4, 1901 (Meiji 34)
A poet and painter from the Taisho period. The eldest son of Kenji and Sonoko. Born in Hongo, Tokyo. In 1914, he entered Tokyo Prefectural First Middle School, and in 1916, he entered the Science Department of the Second High School in Sendai. He was an admirer of Baudelaire, and dropped out after a love affair with a married woman named H.S. In 1922, he entered the French department of the Tokyo School of Foreign Languages, where he began translating Baudelaire's works and writing poetry. He spent time in Shanghai from December 1922 to January of the following year, and after returning to Japan, he began studying painting with the idea of becoming a painter. In July, he went to Kyoto, relying on his friend from his days at Second High School, Masaoka Chuzaburo, who was studying at Kyoto University, and met Nakahara Chuya, who was a student at Ritsumeikan Middle School, and taught Chuya innovative French poetry. This was the opportunity for Chuya to start writing poetry in earnest. At the end of the same year, he became a member of the "Yamamayu" group at the recommendation of Kobayashi Hideo, and published several poems, which Kobayashi, reading, was also influenced by Tominaga. Tominaga's works are elegant in the style of symbolism, and while he was influenced by Baudelaire and Rimbaud, such as "Self-Portrait on a Bridge," "Autumn Lament," and "Bird and Animal Taxidermy," he did not stop at imitating them, but continued to write his own unique poetry. Perhaps no other Japanese literary figure of the time accepted the works of the French Symbolists as accurately as Tominaga. His work is almost emotional rather than theoretical, and while Tominaga's own works are similar to Baudelaire's prose poems, they are subtly different, bringing the first lyrical and philosophical fruits to the history of Japanese poetry. Despite suffering from tuberculosis, he continued to translate works by Rimbaud and others, and at the same time wrote prose poems such as "Impatience" and "Letter to distribute the inheritance." He was a talent ahead of his time, but illness prevented him from achieving great success. <Works> "Collection of Poems by Tominaga Taro," "Collection of Poems and Paintings by Tominaga Taro" <References> "Tominaga Taro" by Ooka Shohei

(Shigeru Oikawa)

Source: Asahi Japanese Historical Biography: Asahi Shimbun Publications Inc. About Asahi Japanese Historical Biography

Japanese:

没年：大正14.11.12(1925)
生年：明治34.5.4(1901)
大正時代の詩人,画家。謙治,園子の長男。東京本郷生まれ。大正3(1914)年,東京府立一中入学,8年,仙台の第二高等学校理科乙類に入学。ボードレールに傾倒し,H・Sという人妻との恋愛事件を起こして退学。11年,東京外国語学校仏語科に入学,ボードレールの翻訳や詩作を始める。12年12月から翌年1月まで上海に遊び,帰国後は画家になることを考え,絵の修業を始める。7月,二高時代の友人で京大にいた正岡忠三郎を頼って京都へ行き,このとき立命館中学在学中の中原中也と出会い,斬新なフランスの詩を中也に教える。これは中也が本格的な詩作を始める契機となった。また同年暮れ,小林秀雄の勧めで『山繭』同人となり,幾篇かの詩を発表し,それを読んだ小林もまた富永の感化を受ける。富永の作品は象徴詩風の端正なもので,「橋の上の自画像」「秋の悲嘆」「鳥獣剥製所」など,ボードレール,ランボーなどの影響を受けながら,その模倣に終わらず,独自の詩作を続けた。恐らく当時の日本の文学者で,フランス象徴派の作品を富永ほど正確に受容した詩人はいないだろう。それは理論的というよりは,ほとんど感性的なもので,富永自身の作品は,ボードレールの散文詩にありそうでありながら微妙に異なり,日本の詩の歴史に初めての抒情的,思想的な果実をもたらした。肺病に苦しみながらランボーなどの翻訳を続け,同時に「焦躁」「遺産分配書」などの散文詩を書いた。時代に先駆けた才能であったが,病魔が大成を妨げた。<著作>『富永太郎詩集』『富永太郎詩画集』<参考文献>大岡昇平『富永太郎』

(及川茂)

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