Awards/Research Grants

Awards and Grants

What are the Otomo Yakamochi Literature Award and the Koshi no Kuni Poetry Award?

In Toyama Prefecture, various commemorative events were held to commemorate the 718th anniversary of the birth of Otomo Yakamochi (785-1300), a representative poet of the Manyoshu, who wrote many excellent poems in Etchu, who was appointed as the governor of the country. I'm here.
In 2017, we established the Otomo Yakamochi Literature Award, which honors outstanding poets from around the world, and the Koshi no Kuni Poetry Award, which honors outstanding young poets related to Toyama Prefecture.
Our aim is to contribute to the creation of enriched lives for people in Japan and overseas.

Otomo Yakamochi Literary Award

3 times (2023)

Winner

Jean-Luc Stemmetz

Major books

Et pendant ce temps-là... (and in between)

Profile

Jean-Luc Stemmetz

Jean-Luc Steinmetz

Professor Emeritus, University of Nantes
From France
82

Born in Tours in 1940.He is professor emeritus at the University of Nantes. He started writing poetry at the age of 15, including Crossing Echoes L'Écho traversé (1968), Free Fall into the Morning Chute libre dans le matin (1994), And in the meantime/October Japan” Et pendant ce temps-là, suivi de Japon d'octobre (2013), and “Towards the Apocalypse” Vers l'Apocalypse (2022), he has published about 15 collections of poetry. "October Japan" is a highly personal sketch of Japan with deep scars that I visited with Mrs. Kiyoko at the invitation of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science seven months after the Great East Japan Earthquake. is also an expression of In 7, Le Jeutigré des apparences won him the Paul Verlaine Prize at the Académie Française, as well as the Writers' Association Poetry Grand Prix for his entire poetry work at that time. .In addition to writing numerous reviews and travelogues, he is also known as the author of biographies of important poets. In 2008, he received the Pierre-Georges Castex Prize from the Academy of Morality and Politics and the Henri Mondor Prize from the Académie Française for Stéphane Mallarmé, Absolutes and Days (Japanese translation, 1991). .He has been to Japan several times, each time giving a series of lectures at major Japanese universities.

Reason for selection

This time, Jean-Luc Stemmetz was selected from among 125 candidates (from 29 countries and regions).Jean-Luc Stemmetz is a representative of today's French poetry world, with a large number of substantial collections of poetry.He is married to a Japanese woman, and draws inspiration from his stay in Japan and Japanese aesthetics to create his own poetry.And the work is a crystal spun with simple and dense words, and it was evaluated as suitable for the third award.
2 times (2021)

Winner

North Island (Pay Tao)

Major books

Kitajima (Pei Tao) Poems

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North Island (Pay Tao)

poets
Born in China
71

Born in Beijing in 1949.His real name is Zhao Zhenkai. In 1978, he published the literary magazine Konten (meaning today) in Beijing with his friends. Since 1987 he has taught at many universities in Europe, America and Hong Kong.His Kitajima works have been translated into 30 languages.He is an honorary doctorate from Brown University and an honorary professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.He has received the International PEN Club Barbara Goldsmith Free Writing Award, the Swedish International PEN Club Literature Award, the Guggenheim Prize of the USA and the Golden Crown, the highest honor of the Macedonian Struga Poetry Evening.He is an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts. In 2009, he founded the Hong Kong International Poetry Evening, currently the most influential international poetry festival in Asia. In 2018, he founded the Hong Kong Poetry Festival Foundation.

Reason for selection

This time, Kitajima was selected from among 109 candidates (24 countries and regions).In 2015, Kitajima received the most prestigious award in the field of poetry, the Struga Poetry Evening Golden Crown Award, and her name was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. He is a poet.Kitajima started out with her ideological poetry in the midst of the turmoil of modern China, but in her recent works, she sublimes her past resentment into a personal poetry with a strong soul, and expresses the spirit. reaching the person. In "Kitajima (Pei Tao) Poetry Collection" (edited and translated by Shun Korenaga, Shoshi Yamada, 2009), we can trace the maturity of his poetry.As seen in this anthology, in her recent work, Passing the Winter, a poet under political oppression sees the light of the future in the soul of her poetry.As a result, it was highly evaluated that it transcended the history and climate of the poet and reached the expression of humankind.
1 times (2019)

Winner

Michael Longley

Major books

The Weather in Japan

Profile

Michael Longley

Michael Longley

poets
Born in England (Northern Ireland)
78

Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1939.He has worked for the Northern Ireland Arts and Culture Council for 20 years, promoting literature and traditional music in the countryside. He has published 11 books of poetry and his Collected Poems was published in 2006.His latest collection of poetry, Angel Hill, was published in 1962, as was Sidelines: Selected Prose 2015-2017.His poetry collection The Stairwell (2014) won the Griffin International Award. He was awarded the Queen's Gold Medal in 2001 and the Wilfred Owen Award in 2003.In addition, he has won the Whitbread Award, the Hawthornden Award and the TS Elliott Award. In 2015 he was made an Honorary Citizen of Belfast and in 2010 he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. He was president of the Irish Poetry Society from 2007 to 2010. In 2017 he won the International PEN Club Pinter Award. He visited Japan in 1991 and was impressed by Japanese art and culture, and his experience continues to influence his poetry.One of his representative works is the collection of poems "Weather of Japan".

Reason for selection

A representative poet of contemporary Irish literature who has won numerous international literary awards, he has opened a unique frontier by combining modernism with English poetry inspired by short Japanese literature.Moreover, her beautiful words are lyrical and musical, and at the same time, she is well known to the world as a poet who sings universal themes such as loneliness and solidarity in life with a calm observation eye and emotion.The selection committee highly evaluated Mr. Longley's achievements and decided him as the recipient of this award, which aims to "reward the world's best poets at the time of selection."In this situation where there are not necessarily many introductions of his poems in Japanese, the decision of this award is of great significance.

Koshi no Kuni Poetry Award

3 times (2023)

Winner

Kika Hotta

Award winning work

afternoon of mankind

Profile

Kika Hotta

Literary artist
47

Director of the haiku magazine Rakuen and member of the poetry magazine Tanka.For his haiku, he received the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Newcomer's Award, the Modern Haiku Association Award, and the Shiba Fukio Haiku Newcomer's Award Shinji Saito Encouragement Award.He has co-authored many collections of haiku, including the collection of haiku "Amakuhiya", "Stars", and "Afternoon of Humankind", the collection of poems "Wakura", and the book "Haiku Meets Tanka".He is a director of the Modern Haiku Association, a director of the International Haiku Association, a member of the Modern Poets Association, a member of the Japan Poets Club, and a member of the Japan Writers Association.He writes mainly poetry in multiple languages and forms, and conducts literary activities both at home and abroad.He is also involved in regional development activities in Toyama Prefecture.

Reason for selection

In the haiku collection "Human Afternoon", which is the subject work, Mr. Hotta's breadth of range, which confronts global problems and social issues and boldly engages in creative activities in response to such problems, was highly evaluated.He has already won a major national award, and is expected to continue to play an active role in the future.
2 times (2021)

Winner

Taku Kasagi

Award winning work

Haruka curtain call

Profile

Taku Kasagi

poet
Born in Niigata Prefecture (Itoigawa City)
33

Born in 1987.Born in Itoigawa City, Niigata Prefecture, and lives in Toyama City. She started writing songs in 2005. In 2006, she joined "Kyoto University Tanka" and she was enrolled until 2014.Currently, she is a "long-swimming" doujin. In 2012, she won the 58th Kadokawa Tanka Award (Honorable Mention). In 2018, she won the 2019th Gendai Tankasha Award. In XNUMX, her first songbook "Haruka Curtain Call" was published.

Reason for selection

The target work "Haruka Curtain Call" has a poetry that is not found in people living in metropolitan areas, but it is a prayer for the souls that cannot but be hurt in the global society of the 2020s and a reference to issues such as gender. , can be said to be a contemporary and social work that matches the pursuit of the inner side.It can be expected that this award will encourage newcomers who may live in Toyama Prefecture to continue their activities in the future, and that the significance of this award and the efforts of this prefecture will be disseminated nationwide.
1 times (2019)

Winner

Wataru Yamada

Award winning work

sheep in water

Profile

Wataru Yamada

poet
Born in Hokkaido (Sapporo City)
34

Born in 1983.Born and lives in Higashi Ward, Sapporo City, Hokkaido.His great-grandfather is from Oyabe City, Toyama Prefecture.He graduated from the Faculty of Law, Ritsumeikan University.He completed a master's course at Hokkai Gakuen University Graduate School of Literature.She belongs to tanka magazines "bag" and "pool". In 2009, she won the 55th Kadokawa Tanka Award for Natsu no Korumadan, and the 27th Modern Tanka Criticism Award for The Thought of Composing Trees. In 2012, she published her first collection of poems, Sayonara Bug Children, which received the 1th Hokkaido Shimbun Tanka Award in the same year, and the 27th Contemporary Poet Association Award in 2013. In 57, she received the 2014nd Sapporo Cultural Encouragement Award. In 42, she published her second collection of poems, Sheep in the Water.Other publications include the anthology Sakurazensen Kaisen Sengen Born after 2016 Modern Tanka Japan Representative (2) and the essay Kotoba Otedama Juggling (1970). Since 2015, she has been selected as a "Wild Age" (Kadokawa Shoten) "Wild Poetry".

Reason for selection

The subject work, "The Sheep that Sinks in Water," has a very high compositional and fictional power, and has the power to read at once, and has a profound feeling as a collection of poems.Confronting contemporary keywords such as new town, bullying, and infertility, it shows one of the achievements of modern poetry.It is believed that this award will serve as an impetus for further activities in the future for the author, whose important theme is "Hokkaido literature as immigrant literature" based on his own roots.He is also active in a wide range of fields, including reviews of contemporary tanka, essays, and anthologies.It is appropriate to present this award in anticipation of her further success in the future.