Shigeji Tsuboi was a prominent Japanese poet of the new age of Japanese literature. He was born on October 10, 1897 and died in September 4, 1975 at the age of 77 years. Tsuboi was born on the island of Shodoshima. He went to the Waseda University in Tokyo, but he never completed his studies. Initially, Tsuboi started out as a modernist and anarchist. As the wave of Marxism grew stronger in Japan, It away Tsuboi, and he broke up with the anarchists. The breaking away from the anarchist movement resulted in a broken arm.
Tsuboi started operating with the proletarian association; his duty was to write short political texts and being a vibrant organizer of the movement functions. Due to his anti-government writing, he landed in prison twice. During his second time in prison, he was along some other left-wing writers; it was at this time that he renounced his duty of writing anti-government work after a lot of torture in prison. The harsh and cruel act of the government to Tsuboi aimed to disband the whole movement.
After his release, Tsuboi went to his rural home to recover from the torturing and bruising he suffered in the prison. It was after some time that he returned from the countryside in desolation, with the feeling of betraying his country weighing him down. He expressed this feeling of dejection in several of his poems that he wrote including Self-portrait, Mask and Criminal.
During the war in Japan, Tsuboi lived in Japan away from any political and government practices. He spent his time writing short hilarious texts, deep within them hidden the anti-war messages. After the war was over, Tsuboi was very instrumental in the formation of two magazines, Gendai shi (Contemporary poetry) and Shin nihon bungaku (New Japanese literature). In addition, during this period, Tsuboi wrote one of his very renowned piece of poetry, Fusen.
Later in 1962, he merged with several extra left-wing writers to create the journal Shijin Kaigi, which was devoted to aiding workers, both male and female, bring out their displeasures about the status quo. Tsuboi married Sakae, a famous Japanese novelist.
Tsuboi popularity grew more out of his works of poetry than in his involvement in political and revolutionary movements. Through his anti-war and humorous poetry, more people came to know about him and their interest in his great writing continued to draw increased attention to his other works. Tsuboi reached the peak of his popularity in his late years as he participated in the post war reforms that were taking place in Japan. He was renowned for his great contribution in the field of literature and the help he offered to the people through his poetry writing.
Through his collaboration with several other writers, Tsuboi offered help to the many male and female workers in Japan through his writings. Tsuboi was also very instrumental in helping the people express their discontentment, concerns, claims and opinions towards the post war government.
The once anti-government writer in his later years turned out to be a humor writer, wrote to help the society rather than for his self-interest. Even after his death years ago, the work and writings of Tsuboi are still in use up to date in literature and other disciplines of education.
