Mitsuru Nishikawa (西川満, ''Nishikawa Mitsuru''; 1908 February 12 – 1999 February 24) was a writer and literary figure during the Japanese rule in

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

. Born in Aizuwakamatsu City,

Fukushima Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. Fukushima Prefecture has a population of 1,771,100 () and has a geographic area of . Fukushima Prefecture borders Miyagi Prefecture and Yamagata Prefecture ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, he moved to Taiwan with his family during his childhood and returned to Japan for college. He returned to Taiwan shortly after graduation. When he was a senior in high school, Mitsuru Nishikawa established the poetry society Mori Poetry Society (杜の詩人社), starting to produce poetry collections. Later, he embarked on his writing career and received multiple literary awards. In addition to writing, Nishikawa was also active in newspaper editing and literary communities. He was an editor and head of the arts and literature department at the '' Taiwan Daily Newspaper''. He also edited the Taiwan Book Lovers' Association's official magazine '' Love Books'' (愛書) and organized the Taiwan Association for Poets and Taiwan Literary Arts Association, founding magazines such as ''

Formosa Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The island of Taiwan, formerly known to Westerners as Formosa, has an area of and makes up 99% of the land under ROC control. It lies about across the Taiwan Strait f ...

'' (華麗島) and '' Bungei Taiwan'' (文藝臺灣). In April 1946, a year after Japan's defeat, Mitsuru Nishikawa was repatriated to Japan.

Activities

Returning to Taiwan after graduating from university, Nishikawa made extensive use of Taiwanese folklore material in his modern poetry. His collection of poems, '' Mazu Festival'' (媽祖祭), employed a variety of montage techniques, using Taiwanese vocabulary and

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

stories. Drawing on folk beliefs and legendary tales, Nishikawa developed prose poems rich in fantasy, garnering reviews from many scholars and poets. The birth of his eldest son, Jun Nishikawa (西川潤), and his focus on folklore inspired him to write fairy tales. He also adapted the history of Taiwan into novels. His representative work '' Chihkan Record'' (赤嵌記) won the Taiwan Literary Award in the first Taiwan Literature Awards. Towards the end of the war, Mitsuru Nishikawa wrote mainly about national politics, in line with the war efforts and policies of the

Empire of Japan The Empire of Japan, also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was the Japanese nation state that existed from the Meiji Restoration on January 3, 1868, until the Constitution of Japan took effect on May 3, 1947. From Japan–Kor ...

.{{Cite journal , last=Chang , first=Wen-Hsun , year=2012 , title=歷史小說與在地化認同－「國姓爺」故事系譜中的西川滿〈赤崁記〉 , trans-title=Historical Novels and Localization Identity: Mitsuru Nishikawa's 'Chihkan Record' in the Genealogy of 'Koxinga' Stories , journal=Journal of Taiwan Literary Studies , issue=14 , pages=105–131

Reference

People from Aizuwakamatsu Japanese expatriates in Taiwan Waseda University alumni Taiwanese poets Taiwanese novelists