Memorial Gathering for Shintaro Okuno

2017/01/01

Image: From left, Moichi Tanabe (founder of Kinokuniya Shoten), Junzaburo Nishiwaki, (one person skipped), and Hisako Sasaki (Editor-in-Chief of "Sake")

Shintaro Okuno (1899–1968) was a professor in the Major in Chinese Literature at the Faculty of Letters. While a scholar, he was also known as an essayist and a connoisseur with a rich background in Chinese literature. He frequently appeared on television and was renowned for his witty, sophisticated conversational style, the breadth of his activities, and his diverse range of friendships. Adoring Kafu Nagai, he entered Keio University at the age of 21, but was reportedly greatly disappointed to find that Kafu had already retired. After graduating in 1925, he served as a special researcher in China for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs before becoming a professor at the Preparatory Course at age 39, while also serving as a lecturer in the Faculty of Letters. Later, he was promoted to Professor of the Faculty of Letters and became the president of the Mita Bungakkai in 1949. Since there was no mandatory retirement system for faculty at the time, he continued to teach lectures on Comparative Chinese and Japanese Literature until the year of his death.

Regarding the memorial gathering held three years after his death, Ei Muramatsu, then a professor in the Faculty of Letters (Major in Chinese Literature), wrote in this magazine: "I felt that the professor's gathering had to be lively and grand. (...) However, it was not something that could be easily put into practice." Fortunately, a proposal for a commemorative publication for Professor Okuno arose during a meeting of the Mantaro Kubota Memorial Fund committee, and after about a year of work, "Shintaro Okuno: Works and Reminiscences" (a two-volume set consisting of selected works and a collection of reminiscences) was completed. Jun Eto, Mikio Sawamura, and Koji Toita edited the selected works, while Yasusaburo Ikeda, Koji Shirai, and Ei Muramatsu edited the reminiscences. The "Memorial Gathering" was held on June 28, 1971, at the Shimbashi Dai-ichi Hotel, hosted by Mita Bungaku, also serving as a debut for these newly finished books. Over 200 people from academia, literary circles, the media, and other fields attended. The event began with a greeting from Yojiro Ishizaka, president of the Mita Bungakkai, followed by short speeches from Saku Sato, Toshiyoshi Miyazawa, and his former student Renzaburo Shibata, before turning into a social gathering with words of thanks from Mrs. Okuno. The illustriousness of the attendees is evident in the photographs.

In the collection of reminiscences, Ishizaka, who studied with him in the Preparatory Course, wrote: "Regarding Chinese literature, I secretly held a sense of awe, wondering how a university student could be such a genius. (...) Okuno's way of life embodied 'work hard, play hard,' and he likely had no desire to be confined to the cramped environment of a scholar." There is also an anecdote that when he was approached about becoming the Dean of the Faculty of Letters, he declined, saying, "If I do that, won't I be unable to appear on television?"

(Atsuko Ishiguro, Administrative Project Director, Jukukan-kyoku (Keio Corporate Administration))