Sei Ito

, born , was a Japanese Modernist writer of poetry, prose and essays, and a translator.

Life Sei Itō was born in Matsumae, Hokkaidō, under the name of Hitoshi Itō. and kept aiming at what he termed "modernism" in his own writing throughout his life.

Starting in 1931, he provided (together with Sadamu Masamatsu and Hisanori Tsuji) the first complete translation of James Joyce's Ulysses into Japanese in the 1930s. Itō's 1937 novel Streets of Fiendish Ghosts (Yūki no machi) showed the influence of Joyce's stream of consciousness technique, and his style became known as "Shin shinri shugi" ("School of new psychology"). In 1950, he caused controversy for his complete translation of D. H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover, which became the case of an obscenity trial. He was awarded the Kikuchi Kan Prize in 1963 for his Nihon kindai bungaku taikei ("History of Japanese literary circles") and the Japan Art Academy Prize in 1969.

Selected works 1926: Yukiakari no michi (poetry collection) 1931: A Department Store Called M (M Hyakkaten, short story) 1937: Streets of Fiendish Ghosts (Yūki no machi, novel) 1940–41: Tokuno Goro no seikatsu to iken (novel) 1946–48: Senkichi Narumi (novel) 1948: Shōsetsu no hōhō (essay collection) 1955–1969: Nihon kindai bungaku taikei

English translations

Legacy The Itō Sei Prize for Literature (Itō Sei bungaku shō) was established in his memory in 1990. Notable recipients include Kenzaburō Ōe and Yūko Tsushima.