A Brief Biography of Hiroshi Kawasaki

3 juli 2006 Hiroshi Kawasaki moved alone to Tokyo in 1951 and started work as a day labourer at the American navy base camp located in Yokosuka. He met with Noriko Ibaragi for the first time in Tokyo Central Station in March 1953 and discussed launching a poetry magazine. In May, the first issue entitled Kai was launched and the poetry collective by the same name was established to include Shuntaro Tanikawa, Yujiro Funakoshi, Hiroshi Yoshino, Toshio Nakae, Tatsu Tomotake, Makoto Ooka, Erio Kishida, Seiichi Yoshikawa, Yasukichi Ootaki, Koichi Iijima as members. Kawaski’s first book of poetry, A Swan, was published in 1955 and his first poetry drama “About the Sea” was aired on radio.

After getting married in 1957, Kawasaki continued to work as a guard at the US Navy Yokosuka base camp until 1960, when he changed to another company. The following year, he quit his day job altogether and became a full-time writer, earning his living and supporting his wife and children by writing at first mostly for radio and later many different books for publication.

He remained living in Yokosuka with his wife and children until his death in 2004.