{"product_id":"kotaro-takamura-the-chiekopb","title":"Takamura Kōtarō: The Chieko Poems","description":"\u003cp\u003eGreen Integer, paperback\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTranslated by John G. Peters\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublication Date: January 1, 2008\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublisher Marketing: \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTakamura Kōtarō (1883–1956) traveled to New York, London, and Paris to study sculpture in the early 1900s. Upon his return, he wrote Dōtei (Journey) (1914), the first book by a Japanese poet to use Western free verse. The book also begins his famous series of poems about his wife, Naganuma Chieko (1886–1938).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eChieko was an artist and early member of Seitōsha, the Japanese feminist movement. She and Kōtarō broke with tradition by modeling their marriage on sexual equality. These poems are a touching record of their life together, and celebrate individuality and living in accordance with nature rather than society.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn 1931, Chieko became ill with schizophrenia, and eventually had to be institutionalized. After she died, Takamura began to question his Western values, writing a nationalistic poetry during Word War II for which he was condemned after Japan’s defeat. He retreated to a small hut in the mountains of Iwate Prefecture in northern Japan (in part as a kind of penance perhaps), and continued to write about Chieko until his death from tuberculosis.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Open Books: A Poem Emporium","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45536815972375,"sku":"9781933382753","price":15.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0004\/6497\/7956\/files\/71aS7fP8wkL._SL1412.jpg?v=1789945298","url":"https:\/\/open-books-a-poem-emporium.myshopify.com\/products\/kotaro-takamura-the-chiekopb","provider":"Open Books: A Poem Emporium","version":"1.0","type":"link"}