Poet Shuntaro Tanikawa dies at 92

Renowned poet Shuntaro Tanikawa, who is also known for translating the Snoopy and Charlie Brown comic strip “Peanuts” into Japanese, died on Nov. 13 at a Tokyo hospital in Suginami Ward of natural causes, his office said Tuesday. He was 92.
His funeral services were held privately, and a memorial event is being planned, although the date is not yet set.
His son, musician Kensaku Tanikawa, posted on the social media platform X that he died peacefully and that his younger sister and his daughter were at his bedside when he died.
“I would like to express my respect for his wide-ranging accomplishments as the poet who represented postwar Japan and express my condolences,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said at a news conference Tuesday.
Tanikawa, born in 1931 in Tokyo to philosopher Tetsuzo Tanikawa, began writing poetry in his teens. Discovered by poet Tatsuji Miyoshi, Tanikawa was a newcomer to the postwar poetry scene and rose to fame with his debut work, “Two Billion Light-Years of Solitude,” in 1952.
Tanikawa attracted a wide readership with his fresh expressions, incorporating terms with foreign origins like “Coca-Cola Lessons,” creating a new trend in contemporary poetry.
He received numerous awards for his works, including “Songs for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday,” “The Naif,” and “Tromso Collage.”
The Poetry Foundation, a nonprofit organization based in Chicago, describes Tanikawa’s poetry as reflecting “a metaphysical and quasi-religious attitude toward experience. In simple, spare language, he sketches profound ideas and emotional truths.”
His works appear in school textbooks in Japan and have been translated into dozens of languages, such as English, Chinese, French and German.
He also wrote the lyrics for the theme song of the anime series “Astro Boy” and translated foreign works into Japanese, including picture book “Swimmy” and “Mother Goose.”