ISHIKAWA JUN

(1899–1987)

   Ishikawa Jun, given name Kiyoshi, was a modernist author who studied French literature at the Tokyo School of Foreign Languages. Early in his career he worked at Fukuoka University as a professor of French literature. He began his writing career after leaving the university due to controversy over student protest movements. He won the fourth annual Akutagawa Ryunosuke Prize for his story Fugen (1936, tr. The Bodhisattva, or, Samantabhadra, 1990). Ishikawa became famous for both his nonconformist novels and criticisms and for his biographies. He died of lung cancer while working on his last novel, Hebi no Uta (A Song of Snakes, 1987).

   See also BUNGAKKAI; MODERNISM.