「The Flowers of Karma」
Miyazawa Kenji & Nakahara Chūya

Introduction

When talking about writers, it is also important to talk about their idols and inspirations as it is reflective of the types of works that they want to write. Sometimes the inspiration and their works are quite obvious such as the case with Akutagawa Ryūnosuke and Dazai Osamu, both were known for their short stories and novels, giants of Japanese literature in their own right. But, there are relationships which are rarely discussed due to how far detached they are in terms of the works which they have written.

Today, I will be discussing one of those relationships that may seem farfetched at first glance. Mainly anecdotes where Nakahara had quoted Miyazawa.

「There is a world in human nature that is almost totally beyond the scope of this concept, and it can be said that Miyazawa Kenji's life was an unceasing love affair with that world.」

  • Nakahara Chūya, The World of Miyazawa Kenji (1939) [Published posthumously]

The lives of both Nakahara and Miyazawa could not be more different. Kenji lived a life of simplicity, rejecting his family's fortune while studying agriculture. Nakahara on the other hand lived like his Symbolist inspirations, drowning himself with booze and living a decadent lifestyle. The poems of Miyazawa Kenji often exemplifies his exorbitant positivity in the face of arduous challenges such as in "Undefeated by the Rain" while Nakahara's poems once more, follows suit with this symbolist peers discussing the darker themes in life such as his poem "Lament of the Lamb".

But, such contradictions puts beauty into their literary connection. They also had their similarities as well with both being poets and living in the same era.

Works regarding Miyazawa Kenji

Nakahara has written two short pieces of texts regarding Miyazawa. One regarding the release of the Complete Works of Miyazawa Kenji and another on the "World of Miyazawa Kenji". However, for the sake of brevity I will mainly be discussing the first work as it shows Nakahara's love for Miyazawa's works the most.

In the first one, Nakahara writes about his love for the works of Miyazawa, stating that he bought the book "Spring and Chaos" (春と修羅, Haru to shura) back in 1924 and quickly fell in love with the works. He then wonders why Miyazawa wasn't recognized before his death despite his skills in poetry.

「Was it because of insufficient advertising that he was recognized so late? Was it because he did not live in Tokyo? Was it because he had a profession other than being a poet, namely teaching? Was it because he did not have the so-called "literary wanderings"? or a combination of other circumstances? Perhaps it was one of them, perhaps it was a combination of them.」

  • Nakahara Chūya, The Complete Works of Miyazawa Kenji (1934)

Nakahara then continues on talking about the possibilities of why he wasn't recognized much faster despite his works being easy to understand and that Miyazawa's works should be recognized by the wider public. He also comments that Miyazawa imbued his poems with the spirit of old folk songs that "can be felt by anyone who has picked up a poetry book."

His rantings continued on calling the public naive as to not understand Miyazawa's 'clarity of character' and that people did not understand the value of Miyazawa's works. To him, maybe that was the reason why Miyazawa's works were not recognized faster. Nakahara then mentions that he has recommended Spring and Chaos to many people but then laments that since he was a nobody, nobody was willing to pick up the book; wondering if he wasn't persuasive enough in recommending the book.

An Anecdote from Dan Kazuo

In the book "Dazai Osamu: The Novel" (小説：太宰治) written by Dan Kazuo, there were stories included which described Dazai's meeting with Nakahara Chūya for the Blue Flower Magazine.

This particular meeting was the second time they met and the meeting included three people which are Dazai Osamu, Dan Kazuo and Nakahara Chūya (Kusano Shinpei was not here for the meeting). Dan described the meeting and per usual for the two, Dazai and Nakahara fought verbally. Nakahara became deeply agitated and left the room, perhaps because his friend Kusano was not with them and exclaimed that he'd like to go to meet Dazai despite Dan telling him to stop.

Nakahara got tired of fighting and lied in the snow, as he lied there he starts quoting Miyazawa Kenji's poem The Flowers of Karma (業の花びら) from Spring and Chaos. He then continued to toil around quoting the poem until he decided to go annoy Dazai again. Nakahara went to his room and pounded on his door which woke up the house owner telling him that, "Mr. Tsushima is asleep". This did not stop him however, he quietly snuck into the room and continued to threaten Dazai in his sleep.

After seeing this Dan caught his arm as Nakahara started to spiral down into a frenzy. Nakahara tried to shake him off but Dan took him out of the room and into the yard where Nakahara tried to swing at him. Dan however, realized what was going on and quickly threw him to the snow. After this Nakahara decided to leave for Ginza.

Kusano Shinpei (1903 - 1988)

Kusano Shinpei (草野心平) was a Japanese poet known for his unique style of poetry. He was a part of the Blue Flower magazine along with Dazai Osamu, Dan Kazuo and Nakahara Chūya. He was as also friends with Miyazawa Kenji, one of the few who recognized his talents before his death.

Conclusion

We can see that through his writings and his actions, Nakahara found a profound love in Miyazawa's poetry. That the simplicity of Miyazawa's poems hides the deep meaning behind his works and he wishes that Miyazawa's works could be recognized before his death. His constant recommendation of Miyazawa's works was also a testament to how much he loved the man's works, while not as big as an influence to his works such as Arthur Rimbaud or Charles Baudelaire, it can be seen that that Miyazawa Kenji has played part in influencing the great poet himself.