Gan Tanigawa
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Gan Tanigawa was a Japanese poet, critic, and social activist. He is best known for his work with the poetry group.


Early life and education

Tanigawa was born Iwao Tanigawa on December 25, 1923 in
Minamata, Kumamoto is a city located in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan. It is on the west coast of Kyūshū and faces Amakusa islands. Minamata was established as a village in 1889, re-designated as a town in 1912 and grew into a city in 1949. As of March 2017, the c ...
. He was born the second of six children. His siblings include and . He entered
Tokyo Imperial University The University of Tokyo (, abbreviated as in Japanese and UTokyo in English) is a public university, public research university in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1877 as the nation's first modern university by the merger of several Edo peri ...
in 1942. He was a student conscript in the military during
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, but returned to the university and finished his degree in 1945.


Career

After graduation Tanigawa worked as a journalist. While working he joined a poetry group which published a journal called . In 1947 Tanigawa joined the
Japanese Communist Party The is a communist party in Japan. Founded in 1922, it is the oldest political party in the country. It has 250,000 members as of January 2024, making it one of the largest non-governing communist parties in the world. The party is chaired ...
. He published his first volume of poetry in 1954, then another in 1956 and 1960. In 1958 he moved to the Chikuhō region with Kazue Morisaki and and founded a poetry group and journal called . Tanigawa left the Communist Party during the Anpo protests. Instead he became involved in the Miike coal mine strike that was happening at that time. When that failed, he tried to organize at a smaller mine. Often his work focused on the local level, with hopes of that change then making an impact on a larger scale. In 1962 he tried to start a school with , , and , but it failed. In 1966 he paused his writing and returned to Tokyo, where he founded a company. He moved to Nagano prefecture in 1978, then left his company in 1980. Though he did not write for the
New Left The New Left was a broad political movement that emerged from the counterculture of the 1960s and continued through the 1970s. It consisted of activists in the Western world who, in reaction to the era's liberal establishment, campaigned for freer ...
, Gan is credited as a predecessor to the movement. His writing style has been called "magical, but highly conceptual". Tanigawa died of
lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma, is a malignant tumor that begins in the lung. Lung cancer is caused by genetic damage to the DNA of cells in the airways, often caused by cigarette smoking or inhaling damaging chemicals. Damaged ...
on February 2, 1995 in Kawasaki.


References

1923 births 1995 deaths 20th-century Japanese poets Japanese activists Japanese critics University of Tokyo alumni Activists from Kumamoto Prefecture {{DEFAULTSORT:Tanigawa, Gan