33 Facts About Junji Kinoshita

Junji Kinoshita was the foremost playwright of modern drama in postwar Japan.

Junji Kinoshita was a translator and scholar of Shakespeare's plays.

Junji Kinoshita helped to promote theatrical exchanges between Japan and the People's Republic of China, and he traveled broadly in Europe and Asia.

Junji Kinoshita was born in Tokyo as the son of government official Junji Kinoshita Yahachiro and his wife, Sassa Mie.

Junji Kinoshita attended school in Tokyo until 1925 when his parents moved back to his father's hometown of Kumamoto to retire.

Junji Kinoshita was in fourth grade at the time and transferred to the Fifth High School in Kumamoto.

Junji Kinoshita attended Kumamoto Prefectural Middle School and later went on to Kumamoto Fifth High School, where he received a degree equivalent to that of a western university.

In 1936, Junji Kinoshita returned to Tokyo to attend the Imperial University of Tokyo where he studied English literature.

Junji Kinoshita majored in Shakespeare under the instruction of Yoshio Nakano, who was an eminent translator of English and American literature.

Junji Kinoshita earned a degree in Elizabethan theater in the early 1940s, but majoring in English literature was not encouraged in Japan at the time since the society was greatly influenced by militarism.

Junji Kinoshita's early plays, on the theme of some folktales, were created at that time.

Junji Kinoshita graduated with a master's degree from University of Tokyo in 1939 and continued in school.

Junji Kinoshita left many works, which cover a wide range of genres including plays, novels, and theatre reviews, in addition to his translation of Shakespeare's works.

Junji Kinoshita was selected as a member of The Japan Art Academy in 1984, and chosen as the honorary citizen of Tokyo in 1998, but he turned down both of these honors.

Junji Kinoshita never accepted any national honors or awards, and stuck to his left-wing political views throughout his life.

Junji Kinoshita's death was reported one month after his death.

Junji Kinoshita is well known as a translator of English literature, especially for his contributions to translations of William Shakespeare after World War II.

Junji Kinoshita tells in his writing that the beginning of his interest in Shakespeare was absolutely when he heard Thomas Lyell's recitation of Shakespeare.

Junji Kinoshita believed that this opportunity gave him, as a foreigner, some sense of enjoying the strengths and weaknesses of the intonation.

Junji Kinoshita was fully impressed by, in his words, "the declaration" Shakespeare created.

In 1955, Junji Kinoshita went abroad for the first time since the war and saw many of Shakespeare's plays performed in England.

Junji Kinoshita emphasized that Shakespearean speeches were supposed to be spoken by performers.

However, when Junji Kinoshita saw a production of a Shakespeare play in Japan after returning from England, he got the impression that Japanese performers' performances did not deliver the greatness of Shakespeare's speeches to their audience.

On one hand, Junji Kinoshita hoped Japanese actors would brush up on their oratory skills.

Junji Kinoshita believed that playwrights can contribute to the improvement of a performance by creating a text that is the most suitable for each performer's vocal abilities.

Junji Kinoshita believed it is not only a case of translating Shakespeare's works, but that it was necessary for him to write the words that would enhance the performances on stage.

Junji Kinoshita wrote drafts of plays that are based on folktales in this period.

Junji Kinoshita spoke about how to make the best use of folktales in his writings based on Japanese folktales.

Junji Kinoshita said that people often say that folktales are living now and will have to be passed down to future generations for them to continue, but it is needless to say that this does not mean folktales should be the same as they used to be long ago, or that we are supposed to keep them as they were before.

Junji Kinoshita had socialist-leanings, though he was never dogmatic like many socialists in Japan in those days.

Junji Kinoshita did not agree with translating Shakespeare in a way that emphasized the audience's understand.

Junji Kinoshita felt this translation method robbed the text of its deeper meanings and emotional power.

Junji Kinoshita wrote Yuzuru for Yasue Yamamoto, and it was published in 1949.