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【国際交流PRアソシエイトからの発信★】The Eternal Shining Light of Iwate

岩手大学農学部の前身である盛岡高等農林学校の卒業生である宮沢賢治。世界中の人に賢治さんのことを知ってほしいという思いをこめて、岩手大学の留学生?キョさんが英語と中国語で賢治さんの人生や功績について紹介します。（言語：英語?中国語）

【Messages ★ from the International Exchange PR Associate】

Kenji Miyazawa is a graduate of the Morioka Imperial College of Agriculture and Forestry, the predecessor of the Faculty of Agriculture at Iwate University. With the hope that people around the world will know about Kenji, an international student at Iwate University, will introduce the life and achievements of Kenji Miyazawa in English and Chinese. (Language: English, Chinese)

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The Eternal Shining Light of Iwate

---- The commemorating the centenary of Miyazawa Kenji 's first work

Miyazawa Kenji（宮沢賢治 みやざわ けんじ）(August 27, 1896 - September 21, 1933) was an influential Japanese poet, fairy tale writer, agriculturist, educator, and devout Buddhist and social activist. His works with a strong color of fantasy, a large number of natural symbols and scenes, everywhere reveals the concern for life. In his works, he embodies the exploration and thinking of nature, society and life, full of good feelings about life, sincere and profound, romantic and cold, kind and compassionate, with a unique humanistic temperament. Together with Natsume Soseki, Dazai Osamu, Kawabata Yasunari, Mishima Yukio, and Murakami Haruki, he is one of the most popular Japanese writers of the past 1,000 years, which shows his pivotal position in the Japanese literary world.[i]

A well-known national writer in Japan, he has a deep connection with Iwate University. In April 1915, Miyazawa Kenji was admitted to the Morioka Higher Agriculture and Forestry School (now the Faculty of Agriculture, Iwate University) and entered the school with the first place. He conducted geological survey research under the guidance of Professor Toyotaro Seki. After Miyazawa Kenji graduated on March 15, 1918, he continued his studies as a research student majoring in agriculture and conducted soil property surveys in Hienuki.

In 1921, Miyazawa Kenji became a teacher at Hienuki Agricultural School. The four years he spent as an agricultural school teacher were also the peak period of Kenji's literary creation. He farmed during the day and gave classes to farmers at night, explaining agricultural knowledge, teaching English, telling stories and holding concerts. He spent every minute of his life on altruism, sharing the joys and sorrows of farmers in dire straits. In this way, at the age of only 37, he contracted lung disease due to overwork and malnutrition, and unfortunately died early. The first and second episodes of Spring and Asura took shape during this period (1922-1926).

On April 20, 1924, Miyazawa Kenji published at his own expense the book Spring and Asura. However, unlike his works, which were not taken seriously in his lifetime, the charm of his works not only did not fade with the passage of time, but also became one of the brightest chapters in the history of modern Japanese literature.

It is now exactly 100 years since Miyazawa Kenji published his first collection of poems. Over the past years, countless people have been comforted by the spiritual power conveyed by his works, silently encouraging people in trouble.

In his short life, Miyazawa Kenji firmly practiced his belief: "世界がぜんたい幸福にならないうちは個人の幸福はありえない" (there can be no individual happiness without the happiness of all mankind).

As an international student at Iwate University, I can feel Miyazawa Kenji's incomparable talent and compassion in his work, and remember him with reverence and affection, and live out his ideals as if he never left here.