Takashi Nagatsuka

Poet and novelist. Born on April 3, 1879, in Kossho Village, Yuki County, Ibaraki Prefecture (present-day Joso City). Born into a wealthy family whose father had once served as chairman of the prefectural assembly, the family's fortunes were on the decline. He dropped out of Mito Middle School due to a nervous breakdown, and became interested in literature and began composing tanka. At the age of 21, he traveled to Tokyo to visit Masaoka Shiki and become his student, and the affection between teacher and student was described as that of an "ideal love and affection between a father and a son." After Shiki's death, he traveled with fellow student Ito Sachio and others, and published works such as "Ashibi," "Akane," and "Araragi," creating sophisticated and elegant poems about nature that he himself called "poems of sketching." He also began writing novels around that time, and in 1910 (Meiji 43) he serialized the full-length novel "Tsuchi," which could be called Japan's first peasant literature, in the Tokyo Asahi Shimbun. He fell ill with laryngeal tuberculosis the following year, but resumed composing tanka, leaving behind a collection of 231 elegiac poems entitled "Hari no Gotoku" (Like a Needle) (1914-1915, published in Araragi), before passing away at the age of 36 in a hospital in Fukuoka on February 8, 1915, while on a trip there.

[Yoshimi Kondo]

The white clay pot is perfect for drawing cold water in the misty morning.

"The Complete Works of Nagatsuka Setsu, 7 volumes and 1 supplementary volume (1976-1978, Shunyodo Shoten)" ▽ "Saito Mokichi, ed., Research on Nagatsuka Setsu, volumes 1 and 2 (1944, Chikuma Shobo/republished 1983, Japan Library Center)" ▽ "Nagatsuka Setsu: Life and Works, by Hirawa Kozo (1943, Rokugeisha)" ▽ "Nagatsuka Setsu, by Kitazumi Toshio (1981, Ohfusha)" ▽ "Collection of Poems by Nagatsuka Setsu" (Obunsha Bunko)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

歌人、小説家。明治12年4月3日、茨城県結城(ゆうき)郡国生(こっしょう)村（現常総(じょうそう)市）に生まれる。父が県会議長を務めたこともある素封家に生まれたが、家運は傾いていた。水戸中学校を神経衰弱のため中退、文学に親しみ短歌をつくり始めた。21歳のとき上京し正岡子規(まさおかしき)を訪れ門人となり、その師弟の情は「理想的愛子」といわれた。子規死後、同門の伊藤左千夫(いとうさちお)らと行をともにし『馬酔木(あしび)』『アカネ』『アララギ』などを出し、「写生の歌」と自らよぶ精緻(せいち)で気品をたたえた自然詠をつくった。またそのころから小説を書き、1910年（明治43）『東京朝日新聞』に日本の最初の農民文学ともいうべき長編小説『土』を連載。翌年のころより喉頭(こうとう)結核を病み、ふたたび短歌をつくり、『鍼(はり)の如(ごと)く』（1914～1915、『アララギ』所載）と題する哀韻深い231首の作品を残し、大正4年2月8日、旅先の福岡の病院で36年の生を終えた。

［近藤芳美］

　白埴(しらはに)の瓶(かめ)こそよけれ霧ながら朝はつめたき水くみにけり

『『長塚節全集』7巻・別巻1（1976～1978・春陽堂書店）』▽『斎藤茂吉編『長塚節研究』上下（1944・筑摩書房／再刊・1983・日本図書センター）』▽『平輪光三著『長塚節・生活と作品』（1943・六芸社）』▽『北住敏夫著『長塚節』（1981・桜楓社）』▽『『長塚節歌集』（旺文社文庫）』

出典　小学館　日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)について　情報 | 凡例