Ishikawa, Jun

Born Mar. 7, 1899, in Tokyo. Japanese writer and critic.

Ishikawa, a 1920 graduate of the Tokyo Institute of Foreign Languages, has been publishing his works since the mid-1930s. His tale Fuken (1936), about the futility of dreams in modern life, was awarded the Akutagawa Prize (1936). Yet “Song of Mars” (1938), a satirical short story about Japanese militarism, was banned by the censor. An expert in Japanese antiquity, Ishikawa addressed himself to historical themes in Watanabe Kazan (1941), a novel about the tragic fate of the artist and enlightener of the early 19th century. Several of his works written since World War II—for example, The Golden Legend (1946) and The Eternal Lamp (1946)—are marked by a departure from the portrayal of real life. The tale The Falcon (1953) returns Ishikawa to social problems, depicting the life and struggle of Japanese workers. He also wrote studies in the history of Japanese literature (Mori Ogai, 1941).