The Travels of Prince Tatsuhiko: A Biography of Tatsuhiko Shibusawa

2020/01/14

A scholar of French literature who was a defendant in the Sade trial, editor-in-chief of the high-end erotic magazine "Blood and Roses" (Chi to Bara), and novelist of "The Travels of Prince Takaoka" (Takaoka Shinno Kokaiki), which has now been adapted into a manga—Tatsuhiko Shibusawa is likely known to the public in these roles. This book is a 1,000-page biography that describes the life of this uniquely featured man of letters in chronological order from birth to death.

Tatsuhiko Shibusawa was born in Tokyo in 1928 (Showa 3) as the eldest son of a family distantly related to Eiichi Shibusawa. His life, which began with being burned out of his home during the war, spent the postwar years in Kamakura, and ended in 1987 (Showa 62) at the age of 59, fits entirely within the Showa era.

During the political season of the 1960s, Shibusawa was categorized with images such as the "High Priest of Heresy and Darkness," but he was a true free spirit who never held a university position and lived solely by his pen. The trajectory of his life is as light as the wind.

Although he had lively social interactions with many writers, artists, and stage performers, including Yukio Mishima and Tatsumi Hijikata of Butoh, Shibusawa himself was not at all the type to act like a boss. His works and his open, cheerful personality became an innocent magnetic field, naturally drawing many people to his salon in Kamakura.

Editors were no exception. I myself was the last editor to have contact with Shibusawa in his final years, but in the earliest days, there were Kyoji Ishii, founder of Gendai Shishosha, and Jiro Ono, who started Shobunsha. People like literary critic Masashi Miura, poet Takashi Hiraide, and anthologist Masao Higashi were also once important members of the group of editors assigned to Shibusawa.

The tradition of young talents being drawn into Shibusawa's mysterious magnetic field has not ceased even now, 30 years after his death. Leading novelists of a generation who did not know Shibusawa during his lifetime, such as Tetsushi Suwa, Keiichiro Hirano, and Mariko Asabuki, do not hide their great respect for him.

Furthermore, it is a well-known fact that Reiji Ando, a literary critic highly active in studies of Shinobu Orikuchi and others, was once the editor in charge of Shibusawa's complete translated works. Chihiro Kaneko, who handled the important memoirs of Shibusawa's wife Ryuko a few years ago and has now served as the "midwife" for this first biography of Shibusawa, is the youngest and most blessed person in this fortunate lineage of Shibusawa's editors.

The Travels of Prince Tatsuhiko: A Biography of Tatsuhiko Shibusawa

Junichi Isozaki

Hakusuisha

520 pages, 4,000 yen (excluding tax)

*Affiliations and titles are as of the time of publication.