Editing Jun Tsuji

{{Short description|Japanese writer (1884–1944)}}
{{Infobox philosopher
| name        = Tsuji Jun
| image       = Tsuji_jun.jpg
| birth_date  = {{birth date|1884|10|04}}
| birth_place = [[Tōkyō]], [[Japan]]
| death_date  = {{Death date and age|1944|11|24|1884|10|04}}
| death_place = [[Tōkyō]], Japan
| death_cause = [[Starvation]]
| era = [[20th century philosophy]] 
| school_tradition = [[Nihilism]], [[Epicureanism]], [[Egoist anarchism]], [[Individualist anarchism]], [[Dada]] 
| main_interests = [[Max Stirner|Stirner]], [[Vagabond (person)|vagabondage]], [[Shakuhachi]] as [[Dada]], [[Japanese Buddhism]]
| notable_ideas = [[Dada]] as the Creative Nothing, the [[Unmensch]] 
| influenced = {{flatlist|
*[[Ito Noe]] 
*[[Yoshiyuki Eisuke]]
*Hagiwara Kyōjiro ([[:ja:萩原恭次郎|萩原 恭次郎]])
*Miyajima Sukeo
}}
| influences = {{flatlist|
*[[Max Stirner]]
*[[Epicurus]]
*[[Kōtoku Shūsui]]
*Hirose Izen
*[[Ralph Waldo Emerson|Emerson]]
*[[Goethe]]
*[[Oscar Wilde]]
*[[Shinkichi Takahashi]]
}}
}}{{Family name hatnote|Tsuji|lang=Japanese}}[[File:The Ego and Its Own - Tsuji Jun translation.jpg|thumb|The cover of Jun Tsuji's translated edition of ''The Ego and Its Own''.]]
{{nihongo|'''Tsuji Jun'''|[[:ja:辻潤|辻 潤]]|Tsuji Jun|extra=October 4, 1884 &ndash; November 24, 1944}} was a [[Japanese author]]: a [[poet]], [[essay]]ist, [[playwright]], and [[translator]].  He has also been described as a [[Dada]]ist, [[nihilism|nihilist]], [[Epicurean]], [[shakuhachi]] [[music]]ian, actor and [[Bohemianism|bohemian]]. He [[translation|translated]] [[Max Stirner]]'s ''[[The Ego and Its Own]]'' and [[Cesare Lombroso]]'s ''The Man of Genius'' into [[Japanese language|Japanese]].

Born in [[Tōkyō]], Tsuji sought escape in [[literature]] from a childhood he described as "nothing but destitution, hardship, and a series of traumatizing difficulties".<ref>1982.  Tsuji, Jun ed. Nobuaki Tamagawa. ''Tsuji Jun Zenshū'', v. 1. Tokyo: Gogatsushobo. 313.</ref>  He became interested in the works of [[Tolstoy]], [[Kōtoku Shūsui]]'s [[socialist anarchism]], and the literature of [[Oscar Wilde]] and [[Voltaire]], among many others.  Later, in 1920 Tsuji was introduced to Dada and became a self-proclaimed first Dadaist of Japan, a title also claimed by Tsuji's contemporary, [[Shinkichi Takahashi]].  Tsuji became a fervent proponent of [[Stirnerite]] [[egoist anarchism]], which would become a point of contention between himself and Takahashi.  He wrote one of the prologues for famed [[List of feminist poets|feminist poet]] [[Fumiko Hayashi (author)|Hayashi Fumiko]]'s 1929 ({{nihongo|''I Saw a Pale Horse''|蒼馬を見たり|''Ao Uma wo Mitari''}} and was active in the radical artistic circles of his time.

==Individualist anarchism==
Tsuji was influenced by the philosophy of [[Epicurus]], and many characteristics of [[Epicureanism]] show through his lifestyle.  For example, Tsuji avoided active engagement in [[politics]] and sought after a form of [[ataraxia]], which he was apparently able to experience through vagabond wandering and [[egotism|Egoism]].<ref>1982.  Tsuji, Jun ed. Nobuaki Tamagawa. ''Tsuji Jun Zenshū'', v. 1. Tokyo: Gogatsushobo. 24-25.</ref>  He also spent his time primarily trying to enjoy a simple life free of suffering (see [[Aponia]]).<ref>1993.  Setouchi, Harumi. ''Beauty in disarray''. Rutland, VT: Charles E. Tuttle.</ref>  While his writings themselves are significant, it seems Tsuji's own emphasis was on developing an experimental, liberated lifestyle.  Most of Tsuji's writings describe the philosophy behind this, as well as the personal process Tsuji went through towards this aim.  As [[Hagiwara Kyōjirō]] ([[:ja:萩原恭次郎|萩原 恭次郎]]) wrote, “Tsuji chose not to express himself with a pen so much as he chose to express himself through living, as conveyed by his personality.  That is, Tsuji himself was his expression's piece of work”.<ref>1982.  Tsuji, Jun ed. Nobuaki Tamagawa. ''Tsuji Jun Zenshū'', v. 9. Tokyo: Gogatsushobo. 220-221.</ref>

==''Death of an Epicurean''==
One notable play written by Tsuji is the dadaist/absurdist {{nihongo|''Death of an Epicurean''|享楽主義者の死|Kyōraku-shugi-sha no Shi}}, in which a figure must confront [[Panta rhei (Heraclitus)|Panta Rhei]], or the transient nature of all things.  Tsuji saw the concept of Panta Rhei to be related to Stirner's [[Creative Nothing]], wherein the nihility of all things provides potential for creativity and change.  Tsuji also found this relevant to the Buddhist concept of nothingness.<ref>2001.  Hackner, Thomas. ''Dada und Futurismus in Japan: die Rezeption der historischen Avantgarden''. München: Iudicium.  98.</ref>

In ''Death of an Epicurean'', Tsuji comments on the destruction of the [[Ryōunkaku]] (Cloud-surpassing Tower) in the area of Tokyo he often called home, [[Asakusa]].  This building was a [[skyscraper]] that had become very much a symbol of modernity in Japan,<ref>2005.  Ambaras, David Richard. ''Bad Youth: Juvenile Delinquency and the Politics of Everyday Life in Modern Japan.'' Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University. Berkeley: University of California Press.</ref>  and its destruction in the [[1923 Great Kantō earthquake]] was a harrowing omen to many who saw it as reminiscent of the [[Tower of Babel]]. Authors such as [[Ishikawa Takuboku]] popularized the building's symbolism in literature.<ref>1985.  Ishikawa, Takuboku, Sanford Goldstein, Seishi Shinoda, and Takuboku Ishikawa. ''Romaji diary ; and, Sad toys.'' Rutland, Vt: C.E. Tuttle Co.  125.</ref>

==Censorship and vagabondage==
Tsuji wrote during the 1920s, a dangerous period in Japanese history for controversial writers, during which he experienced the wages of censorship through police harassment.  He also experienced this vicariously through the persecution of close associates such as his former wife, [[anarcha-feminist]] [[Itō Noe]], who was murdered in the [[Amakasu Incident]].

For being a controversial writer in the heart of Tokyo's radical art scene, Tsuji himself believed that had he been living instead as a peasant in the Soviet Union at the time, he would surely have been shot to death.<ref>1982.  Tsuji, Jun ed. Nobuaki Tamagawa. ''Tsuji Jun Zenshū'', v. 1. Tokyo: Gogatsushobo. 23.</ref>

==Institutionalization, Buddhist renunciation, and death==

In 1932 Tsuji was institutionalized in a [[psychiatric hospital]] after what would become popularly known as the "[[Tengu]] Incident".<ref>1932.  "Tsuji Jun Shi Tengu ni Naru", ''Yomiuri Shimbun'' (Newspaper), April 11th Morning Edition.</ref>  According to some accounts, one night during a party at a friend's residence, Tsuji climbed to the second floor and began flapping his arms crying "I am the Tengu!", eventually jumping from the building, running around, and jumping onto the table calling "kyaaaaaa, kyaaaa!!"<ref>1971.  Tamagawa, Nobuaki.  ''Tsuji Jun hyōden''. Tōkyō: San'ichi Shobō.  270.</ref>

After hospitalization, Tsuji was diagnosed as having experienced a temporary psychosis probably resulting from his chronic [[alcoholism]].  During this hospitalization Tsuji came to idealize the Buddhist monk [[Shinran]] and read the [[Tannishō]] many times over.<ref>1982.  Tsuji, Jun ed. Nobuaki Tamagawa. ''Tsuji Jun Zenshū'', v. 3. Tokyo: Gogatsushobo. 153. http://www.aozora.gr.jp/cards/000159/files/851.html</ref> Thereafter the once prolific Tsuji gave up his writing career, and he returned to his custom of vagabondage in the fashion of a [[Komusō]] [[monk]], apparently as a sort of [[Nekkhamma]].<ref>1949.  ''Shinchō'', v. 80. Tokyo: Shinchōsha.  310.</ref>

For the next few years Tsuji fell into various incidents with police and was readmitted to mental hospitals several times.  At the age of 41 Tsuji suffered a major [[asthma]] attack and after hospitalization became weighed down with substantial hospital bills. While book royalties and a sort of {{nihongo|"Tsuji Jun Fan Club"|辻潤後援会|Tsuji Jun kōenkai}} provided some economic support, Tsuji was caught up in a harsh late [[World War II]] economic environment and spent the last few years of his life in vagabond [[poverty]].  Tsuji often made ends meet by going door to door as a [[busking]] [[shakuhachi]] musician.

However, in 1944, Tsuji settled down in a friend's one-bedroom apartment in Tokyo, where he was found dead from [[starvation]].

Tsuji is now buried in Tokyo's Saifuku Temple.<ref>1971.  Tamagawa, Nobuaki. ''Tsuji Jun Hyōden''. Tōkyō: Sanʻichi Shobō. 335.</ref>

==Legacy==
Tsuji is remembered for having helped found Dadaism in Japan along with contemporaries such as [[Murayama Tomoyoshi]], MAVO, [[Yoshiyuki Eisuke]], and [[Takahashi Shinkichi]].  Moreover, he was one of the most prominent Japanese contributors to Nihilist philosophy prior to [[World War II]].  He is also remembered as the father of prominent Japanese painter, Makoto Tsuji ([[:ja:辻まこと|辻 まこと]]).

Tsuji was depicted in the 1969 film ''[[Eros + Massacre]]'' and has been the subject of several Japanese books and articles.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* [http://www.aozora.gr.jp/index_pages/person159.html#sakuhin_list_1 Select e-texts of Tsuji's works.] at [[Aozora bunko]] {{in lang|ja}}
* [http://www.geocities.co.jp/WallStreet-Stock/2243/TJ_Hibiki/Index.html Tsuji Jun no Hibiki.] {{in lang|ja}}
* [http://intranslation.brooklynrail.org/japanese/poetry-by-jun-tsuji English translations of Tsuji's work.] at [[The Brooklyn Rail]]

{{Anarchism}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tsuji, Jun}}
[[Category:1884 births]]
[[Category:1944 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century Japanese philosophers]]
[[Category:20th-century Japanese poets]]
[[Category:20th-century Japanese translators]]
[[Category:Dada]]
[[Category:Egoist anarchists]]
[[Category:Scholars of feminist philosophy]]
[[Category:Japanese feminist writers]]
[[Category:Individualist anarchists]]
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[[Category:Japanese feminists]]
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