Ujaku Akita

Ujaku Akita

Ujaku Akita (秋田 雨雀 Akita Ujaku) was the pseudonym of Tokuzō Akita (秋田 徳三 Akita Tokuzō) (30 January 1883 – 12 May 1962), a Japanese author and Esperantist. He is best known for his plays, books, and short stories for children.

Born in Kuroishi, Aomori Prefecture, he studied English literature at Waseda University and became interested in socialism. In 1913 he learnt Esperanto from Vasili Eroshenko, as a result of a chance meeting, and soon became a leader of the proletarian Esperanto movement, and a member of the "La Semanto" group in 1921. He visited the USSR in 1927 for the celebrations of the tenth anniversary of the revolution. In January 1931 he helped found the national organization, Japana Prolet-Esperantista Unio (JPEU), with about 150 members, and with Akita as president. He translated Eroshenko's writings into Japanese, and wrote a textbook on Esperanto.

The rise of militarism in Japan led to difficulties for Akita; in the autumn of 1933 he was detained for several weeks, and forced to write a long statement about his activities.^[1] Nevertheless, he continued to work, founding a magazine the next year, Teatoro (named after the Esperanto word for theatre), which still exists.^[2] He joined the New Cooperative Theatre (Shinkyō Gekidan) but its activities were limited because it was no longer safe to stage plays with political themes.^[3] The JPEU was shut down by the police.

After the war he established a performing arts school and was active in other organizations, such as the New Japan Literary Society (Shin Nihon Bungakukai) and established the Japan Militant Atheists' Alliance (Nihon Sentokteki Mushinronsha Domei).^[4] He died in 1962. A museum in his hometown was opened in 1979.

Selected works

In Japanese

• Higashi no Kodomo ("Children in the East", anthology, 1921)
• Taiyô to Hanazono ("The Sun and the Flower Garden", anthology, 1921)
• Mohan Esuperanto-Dokusyu: Memlernanto de Esperanto ("Esperanto by Self-Study", with Osaka Kenji, textbook, 1927)
• Ujaku jiden ("Autobiography", 1953)

Translated into Esperanto

• Tri dramoj ("Three plays" translated in 1927 by Haĵime Ŝuzui, Kaname Susuki)
  • Fonto de sudroj ("Shudras' Fountain")
  • Danco de skeletoj ("Skeleton Dance")
  • Nokto ĉe landolimoj. ("Night at the Frontiers")
• Tiuj, kiuj ĉirkaŭas la ĉerkon ("Those who gather round the coffin" translated c. 1925 by Junko Sibata)

Notes

1. Janus-faced justice: political criminals in imperial Japan. By Richard H. Mitchell. University of Hawaii Press, 1992. Page 92.
2. Japan encyclopedia. By Louis Frédéric. Translated by Käthe Roth. Harvard University Press, 2005. Page 955.
3. Kabuki's forgotten war: 1931-1945. By James R. Brandon. University of Hawaii Press, 2009. Page 64.
4. A Blueprint for Buddhist Revolution: The Radical Buddhism of Seno'o Giro (1889-1961) and the Youth League for Revitalizing Buddhism By James Mark Shields. Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, 2012. Page 339.

External links

• Account of Akita's life (Japanese)
• Web page at the Nakamura Theatre website (Japanese)
• Web page on the anthologies of 1921 (Japanese)
• Website of the Akita Ujaku Museum in Kuroishi (Japanese)
• Website of the Akita Ujaku Boys' Theatre in Tokyo (Japanese)
• Teatoro magazine (Japanese)
• Grave of Akita (Japanese)
• Works by Ujaku Akita at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)