Chirū Yamanaka

(7 May 1905 – 11 September 1977), born Toshiyuki Yamanaka and also known as Tiroux Yamanaka, was a Japanese poet, critic, translator, and editor who played a central role in introducing Surrealism to Japan. Working in Nagoya during the interwar years, he founded the avant-garde poetry magazine CINÉ in 1929 and established direct contacts with European Surrealists including Paul Éluard and André Breton. In 1937, Yamanaka and Shūzō Takiguchi organized the touring Kaigai Chōgenjitsushugi Sakuhinten (Exhibition of Overseas Surrealist Works), with assistance from European Surrealists including Éluard, Georges Hugnet, and Roland Penrose. Breton and Éluard's 1938 Dictionnaire abrégé du surréalisme listed Yamanaka as a Surrealist poet and writer and identified him as a promoter of the movement in Japan. He was closely involved with Yoru no Funsui (, The Night's Fountain), a Surrealist poetry magazine founded by the poet and photographer Kansuke Yamamoto in Nagoya in 1938, and later published a poetry collection of his own under the same title in 1963. He continued to publish poetry and criticism after the Second World War, as well as books on the history of Surrealism and Dada.

CINÉ published translations of European Surrealist poetry and writing alongside work by Japanese contributors.

Contacts with European Surrealists

Yamanaka began corresponding with Éluard in 1933 and subsequently exchanged letters and publications with Breton, Hugnet, Hans Bellmer, and other European Surrealists. Much of this correspondence survives at Keio University; Munro describes Yamanaka's prewar correspondence as the best-preserved body of its kind among Japanese Surrealists. Surrealism Beyond Borders credits Yamanaka and Takiguchi with organizing the exhibition with help from Éluard, Hugnet, Penrose, and other European contacts. In 1939, its photography section became independent as the Nagoya Photo Avant-Garde. Yamanaka helped form the group with Minoru Sakata, Shimozato, and Tsugio Tajima. Poet-photographer Kansuke Yamamoto was also a member. Kurosawa notes that no surviving document establishes how the magazine acquired its title. The magazine drew the attention of the Special Higher Police, and publication was not allowed to continue. The fourth issue, published in October 1939, was the last.

In 1963 Yamanaka published his own poetry collection under the same title, Yoru no Funsui, through Presse Bibliomane. The volume contains eighteen four-line poems.

Postwar work

Yamanaka continued to publish poetry and criticism after the Second World War. In 1948 he joined Katsue Kitasono and others in publishing CENDRE, and in 1949 he published Shururearisumu shikō josetsu .

His postwar poetry collections included Tasogare no hito (, 1956), Yoru no Funsui (1963), and Suna no gakki (, 1967). In his later years he returned to the documentary history of Surrealism, publishing Surréalisme shiryō to kaisō in 1971 and Dada ronkō in 1975.

Yamanaka died on 11 September 1977, aged 72.

Selected works

Jouer au feu (, 1935), poetry collection L'Échange surréaliste (1936), editor Shururearisumu shikō josetsu (, 1949) Tasogare no hito (, 1956), poetry collection Yoru no Funsui (, 1963), poetry collection Suna no gakki (, 1967), poetry collection Surréalisme shiryō to kaisō (, 1971) Dada ronkō (, 1975)