Noriko Ibaragi

Noriko Ibaragi (茨木 のり子, Ibaragi Noriko) was a Japanese poet, playwright, essayist, children's literature writer, and translator.[1] She is most well known for her poem, Watashi ga ichiban kirei datta toki (わたしが一番きれいだったとき, "When my beauty shone"), written twelve years after the Japanese defeat in WWII. In 1953, she co-founded the literary journal Kai ("Oars"). She began to learn Korean as a second language at the age of fifty, going on to publish her own translations of poetry by her Korean contemporaries.[2]

Noriko Ibaragi
Native name
茨木のり子
Born宮崎のり子, 三浦のり子 (after marriage)
12 June 1926
Osaka
Died17 February 2006
OccupationPoet, Writer, Playwright, Children's Literature Writer, Essayist, Translator
LanguageJapanese, Korean
NationalityJapanese
Notable worksWatashi ga ichiban kirei datta toki (わたしが一番きれいだったとき)
Notable awardsYomiuri Prize
SpouseMiura Yasunobu

Biography

Noriko Ibararagi was born in Osaka City, Osaka Prefecture and spent her childhood in Nishio City, Aichi Prefecture. In 1943, she entered the Imperial Women's Pharmaceutical College (now Tōhō University) in Tokyo. During her years at the College, she lived through the turmoils of WWII, experiencing air raids and hunger. In 1945, at the age of 19, she heard the broadcast announcing Japanese defeat while working as a mobilized student in a Navy medical supplies factory, recounted in her best-known poem Watashi ga ichiban kirei datta toki, written twelve years later. She graduated from the College in September 1946.

After seeing A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Imperial Theatre, Ibaragi decided to become a playwright. In 1946, she was nominated for a Yomiuri Prize (読売新聞戯曲第１回募集) for her first play, Tohotsumioyatachi (とほつみおやたち).[3] In 1948, Ibaragi wrote children's stories Kai no ko puchikyū (貝の子プチキュー) and Gan no kurukoto (雁のくる頃), both broadcast on NHK radio.

In 1950, she married Miura Yasunobu, a physician, and moved to Tokorozawa in Saitama and began submitting her works to the Shigaku (詩学) magazine. Her poetry, Isamashī uta (いさましい歌) was selected for publication on the September volume in 1950.

In 1953, she co-founded the poetry journal Kai (Oars) with Hiroshi Kawasaki, another writer for Shigaku. Although the first volume of Kai only included works by Ibaragi and Kawasaki, they recruited luminaries Shuntarō Tanikawa, Yūjirō Funaoka, Hiroshi Yoshino, and Hiroshi Mizuo as contributors.

In 1976, at the age of fifty, Ibaragi decided to learn Korean as a second language. She was awarded a Yomiuri Prize for her translation of Korean poems in 1990.[4]

Her poetry collection Yorikakarazu (倚りかからず) published in 1999 was featured on the 16 October edition of Asahi Shimbun, and sold a record breaking one hundred and fifty thousand copies.[5]

Ibaragi died on 19 February 2006 from a brain hemorrhage.[6] As she lived alone, she was discovered in her bed two days later. She had already prepared a will three months earlier - she had written out a farewell letter and had it printed, ready to send to some two hundred of her friends and correspondents.[6]

References
  1. "Ibaragi Noriko". Kotobanku (in Japanese). Asahi Shinbun. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
  2. Hanguru e no tabi. Ibaragi, Noriko. Tōkyō: Asahi Shinbunsha. 1989. ISBN 4022605448. OCLC 47428238.CS1 maint: others (link)
  3. 讀賣新聞演劇文化賞 晴れの入選・二名篇. Yomiuri Shinbun (in Japanese). 21 September 1946.
  4. 読売文学賞 研究・翻訳賞・歴代受賞者作品のデータ. Retrieved 4 February 2018.
  5. 茨木のり子さんの詩集『倚りかからず』（天声人語）. Asahi Shimbun (in Japanese). 16 October 1999. Retrieved 4 February 2018.
  6. Otsuka, Hideyoshi (大塚英良) (July 2015). Bungakusha sōtairoku toshokan : sakka, shijintachi nihyakugojūmei no ohakameguri (Shohan ed.). Tōkyō. ISBN 978-4562051878. OCLC 914461163.
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