was a

haiku is a type of short form poetry that originated in Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases composed of 17 Mora (linguistics), morae (called ''On (Japanese prosody), on'' in Japanese) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern; that include a ''kire ...

poet from

Yamanashi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Yamanashi Prefecture has a population of 787,592 (1 February 2025) and has a geographic area of 4,465 km2 (1,724 sq mi). Yamanashi Prefecture borders Saitama Prefecture to the n ...

, the son of the haiku poet

Dakotsu Iida was a Japanese haiku poet from what is now part of the city of Fuefuki, Yamanashi, Japan. Commonly referred to as Dakotsu, his real name was . He trained under Kyoshi Takahama, and was a frequent contributor to such haiku journals as ''Hototogis ...

Biography

Born into the family of the well-known haiku poet

, Ryuta Iida suffered from poor health in his childhood, and was brought up by his grandmother. His brothers died in their childhood. He was educated at Sakaigawa elementary school. The future poet was fond of reading, and he especially liked novels by

Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy Tolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; ,Throughout Tolstoy's whole life, his name was written as using Reforms of Russian orthography#The post-revolution re ...

. He graduated from university in 1947, with a thesis about

Matsuo Bashō ; born , later known as was the most famous Japanese poet of the Edo period. During his lifetime, Bashō was recognized for his works in the collaborative '' haikai no renga'' form; today, after centuries of commentary, he is recognized as th ...

. After that, he earned his living as a rice farmer and later as a journalist. In 1951 he began to work as a librarian at the library of Yamanashi prefecture in

Kōfu is the capital Cities of Japan, city of Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 187,985 in 90,924 households, and a population density of 880 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Overview Toponymy Kōfu ...

city but later embarked on a new career as a creative writer. His first book came out in 1954. He took an active part in the so-called Modern Haiku Movement. In 1956, he won the Yamanaki Literary Prize; in 1957, the 6th Modern Haiku Association Award for his

. In 1960, he was made a columnist in the local newspaper "Mica", for which he had been writing articles since the end of the Second World War. His father Dakotsu, who edited the prestigious haiku magazine "Unmo", died in 1962, and Ryuta Iida took over as the editor. In 1969, Ryuta Iida was awarded the 20th Yomiuri Literary Prize. In 1984, he became a member of the Japan Art Institute. In 2005, Kadokawa Shoten Publishing brought out his Complete Works in ten volumes. In 2007, the poet died of pneumonia in the local hospital in Kōfu at the age of 86. Two years later, Kadokawa Shoten Publishing brought out a volume of his Complete Poems. Ryuta Iida is regarded as one of the best haiku poets of the 20th century.

Books

* "One hundred noodles" (Shinchu, 1954) * "Children" (Kadokawa Shoten, 1959) * "People at the foot" (Mica Inc., 1965) * "Forget" (Shepherd Publications, 1968) * "The way of spring" (Shepherd Publications, 1971) * "Mountain Tree" (Tachibana Shoso, 1975 / Eshorin (Echora Haiku Bunko), 1996) * "Ryo Night" (Shogo Shobo, 1977) * "Konno" (Tachibana Shobo, 1981) * "Shadow of the Mountains" (Tachibana Shobo, 1985) * "Slow" (Tachikawa Shobo, 1991) * "Iida Ryuta Complete Works" (Volume 1 – Volume 10) (Kadokawa Shoten, 2005) * "Iida Ryuta's Complete Poems" (Kadokawa Shoten, 2009)

References

External links

Haiku by Iida Ryuta (Hyundai Haiku database)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Iida, Ryuta 1920 births 2007 deaths 20th-century Japanese poets 21st-century Japanese poets Japanese editors Japanese Zen Buddhists Japanese male poets Yomiuri Prize winners 20th-century Japanese male writers 21st-century Japanese male writers Japanese haiku poets People from Yamanashi Prefecture Writers from Yamanashi Prefecture