Died 13 April 1936 | ||
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Born 26 April 1892
Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan ( 1892-04-26 ) Occupation Writer, French-literary researcher Genre French literary studies, short stories, travel stories Similar Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Kan Kikuchi, Masao Kume, Natsume Sōseki, Romain Rolland | ||
Seiichi Naruse (成瀬 正一, Naruse Seiichi, April 26, 1892 - April 13, 1936) was a Japanese writer and researcher of French Romanticism. He was a professor of French literature at Kyushu University. He is known as the first Japanese having a friendship with Romain Rolland and also known as a collaborator with Kōjirō Matsukata in collecting paintings and sculptures for the Matsukata Collection of the National Museum of Western Art in Ueno, Tokyo.
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Early life
Seiichi Naruse was born as the first son of Seikyo Naruse on April 26,1892. Seikyo Naruse was the president of the 15th Bank(Jūgo Ginkou) and also a manager of other banks and companies. Seiichi grew up in a wealthy environment with his brothers, including Seiji Naruse and Shunsuke Naruse (a diplomat), and sisters. After he graduated from Azabu Junior High School and First Higher School, Japan , he studied in the Faculty of Letters at Tokyo Imperial University (now University of Tokyo). In his college days, he started a literary magazine "Shin-shichou"( 新思潮, a new trend of thought) with his classmates: Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Masao Kume, Kan Kikuchi and Yuzuru Matsuoka. In this magazine, they made their debut as writers. In later years, Akutagawa and Kikuchi became most important novelists in Japan. Naruse was a good linguist. He learned English and German at high school and college. He learned French under a private teacher Hana Yamata (younger sister of Kiku Yamata). He read the 10-volume Jean-Christophe and became an admirer of Romain Rolland and his pacifist thoughts. His French was good enough to exchange letters with Rolland. Just before graduation, he published a Japanese version of Rolland's Life of Tolstoy (translated from its English version) by permission of Rolland himself.
Visit to the U.S.A and Europe
In 1916, just after graduation, he went to live in New York. He had wanted to go to Europe to see Rolland, but the World War I prevented him from doing so. Though he was enrolled at the Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, he spent much of his time going to theaters in Broadway and going to see his favorite artworks in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyne Museum of Art and Science and the Hispanic Society . He was also active in writing short stories and reports for "Shin-shichou". In answer to a journalist's request, he contributed a report "My First Night in New York" to a local newspaper the New York World. In his journal "Trip to Florida", he commented on the American journalism and segregation, which was a rare record of the American South on the eve of America's entry into the World War I. He was asked to write an essay on Japan by his friend, Waldo Frank. "Young Japan" was written in English and published in The Seven Arts (pp.616-26, April issue, 1917). In it are fully described the hope and despair of Japanese intellectuals who were at a loss in a sudden flood of Western cultures after the Meiji Restoration.
Meanwhile, he moved to Boston, where he took literary courses at Boston University and worked part-time as an explainer of ukiyo-e at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Both in New York and in Boston, he was greatly impressed with real paintings and sculptures of the great masters, which he had only seen in books in Japan. His favorites were Millet, Goya, Chavanne, Rembrant and Rodin. He often wrote about his exciting experiences to his friends in Japan.
In March 1918, he set sail from New York for Europe at the risk of being attacked by German U-boats, hoping to do volunteer work for the Red Cross. He arrived safely in Paris, but as the artillery fire from Germany became severe, he was evacuated to Ryon. It was not until in the middle of July that he crossed the French border into Switzerland. In Geneva, in a small island on the lake Leman, he happened to visit a statue of Jean-Jaque-Reseau, whose philosophy would become a longterm subject of Naruse's research. He finally met Romain Rolland in Villeneuve. He stayed there for about 3 weeks. Day in, day out, they discussed literature and culture both in the East and the West. Naruse gave a full account of the actual situatoin of Japan in those days. They foretold the outbreak of the Pacific War between America and Japan. We now know the details of their discussions, because Rolland wrote down every single word that Naruse told him in his "Journal des Années de Guerre" (November, 1916～1918), (Éditions Albin Michel, Paris). Unfortunately, it was published in 1952, 34 years after their meeting in Villeneuve,12 years after Naruse's death. On his way home from Switzerland, Naruse stayed in Pairs for a while, where he luckily encountered with the victory celebration of the World War I. He wrote his impression of it to Rolland and for a Japanese newspaper, Jiji shinpō. Soon after he got home, he decided on researching into French literature as his lifework instead of writing novels.
Life in Paris (1921～1925)
In Feburuary 1919, he married Fukuko Kawasaki, a daughter of Yoshitarō Kawasaki, granddaughter of Shōzō Kawasaki (Kawasaki Shōzō). Shōzō Kawasaki was the founder of the Kawasaki Shipbuilding Company; Yoshitarō Kawasaki was the vice president of it. In 1921, Naruse took Fukuko with him to live in Paris, where he settled down to work on literary researches at the Sorbonne, in literary salons and under private tutors. His study, which was mainly on the 18th and 19th French Romanticism: Jean-Jaque Reseau, Chateaubriand, Victor Hugo, Montesquieu, etc., covered not only literary works and theatrical arts, but also personal histories of writers, the social trends and the living conditions of the periods.
In the early stages of his four-year stay in Paris, he assisted Kōjirō Matsukata (president of the Kawasaki Shipbuilding Company) in collecting art works for the Matsukata Collection. Naruse and Matsukata went around art dealers and galleries such as Durand-Ruel and Bernheim-Jeune, often with Yukio Yashiro. Naruse recommended Matsukata to buy works by Gustave Moreau and Gustave Courbet in particular. In 1921, he visited Claude Monet at Giverny with Fukuko, Kōjirō Matsukata, Yukio Yashiro and Shizuka Sakazaki (art historian). Naruse and Fukuko were good friends of Michel Monet and Blanche Hoschedé-Monet, too. In 1923, the couple visited Claude Monet with Georges Clemenceau at a hospital in Neuilly when Claude had an operation for cataract. Naruse also visited Léonce Bénédite at the Musée Rodin with Matsukata. One time, he bought a bust of Victor Hugo by Auguste Rodin from Bénédite himself.
Literary career
Although Naruse succeeded as a French-literary Researcher later, he authored short stories and travel stories in his early life. From 1914 to 1917, he and his friends (Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Kan Kikuchi, Masao Kume and Yuzuru Matsuoka) published "Sihn-shichou (jp:新思潮)" actively.
He was highly influence by Natsume Sōseki, and Romain Rolland. He visited Sōseki in July 1916 first time, and exchanged letters during his overseas study. Also he exchanged many letters with Rolland, and translated some of his works to Japanese.
Now his travel stories in United States and Europa are regarded as important written material, describing the atmosphere during World War I and post-World War I period.
Literary Works
French-literary Researcher
On October 1 (1925), Seiichi Naruse started working as an associate professor at Faculty of Letters in Kyushu Imperial University (now Kyushu University). His research was focused on the Romanticism in French literature. He was soon promoted as a professor, in May (1926), and taught in Kyushu Imperial University for his entire life. He produced french-literary researchers; for example Yukio Ohtsuka (jp:大塚幸男).
Thereafter, they had a deep relationship spirituality and ideologically beyond generations, races, languages by many letters through Sei-ichi’s overseas study in U.S. As Rolland was encouraged by Sei-ichi’s letter, Rolland gave Naruse emotional supports in his stay in U.S.
Finally they got to see each other at Velleneuve in 1918. This meeting was strengthen their sympathy not only about a literature, but also a social science, including a pacifism. They spent time together over 2 weeks, and both Sei-ichi and Rolland recorded about this wonderful moments in ”Journal des années de guerre” (Rolland), Three-weeks with Rolland” and “One summer afternoon” (Sei-ichi).
Personal life
Sei-ichi Naruse married Fukuko Kawasaki (November 9, 1898 - September 13, 1982), who was a daughter of Baron Yoshitarō Kawasaki (son-in-low of Baron Shōzō Kawasaki; founder of Kawasaki Zaibatsu (now Kawasaki Heavy Industries, K Line, etc)), on February 5, 1919. They had four children.