SHIBUSAWA TATSUHIKO

(1928–1987)

   Shibusawa Tatsuhiko, given name Tatsuo, was an art critic, novelist, and translator of French literature. Born in a wealthy district of Tokyo, he attended the University of Tokyo, graduating in French literature in 1953. Unable to find work after graduation, Shibusawa continued in a master’s program but fell ill to tuberculosis and began a freelance writing career. His first publication was a translation of Jean Cocteau’s Le Grand Ecart in 1954. He worked for the magazine Janru (Genre) and wrote his first novel, Bokumetsu no fu (Poem of Extermination, 1955). Several years later, Shibusawa published Akutoku no sakae (Glory of Vice, translation of Marquis de Sade’s L’Histoire de Juliette; ou, Les Prosperites du vice, 1959). The work was controversial, and Shibusawa and the publisher were prosecuted for public obscenity. The so-called Sade trial finally ended after nine years, and Shibusawa was penalized a minimal amount. He continued thereafter to write on eroticism as well as essays critiquing art, became an expert in medieval demonology, and published fantasy novels. Shibusawa died of larynx cancer.

   See also CENSORSHIP.