Misuzu Kaneko’s Poetry Reading Poetry reading organized in collaboration with the Comité de la Journée Franco-Japonaise de la Femme-JFJF and the Permanent Delegation of Japan to UNESCO 10 March 2009, Foyer Salle 1, 5:30 p.m. - 7 p.m.

 
Poet and author of children’s songs, Misuzu Kaneko began writing at the age of 20. This young and talented writer left us a prolific legacy of more than 512 poems and songs. She began writing at the turn of the 20th century, and was considered a brilliant poet. However, the recognition of her work was short lived, and it was not until the 1980’s that her talent was recognised once again, and her poems were republished. As a result, she encountered immediate success, due in part to her prose, which appealed to a wide audience who found in her poems reverberations of life’s most profound questions.

Sharing her poems with the rest of the world is one of the objectives of this poetry reading. It also intends to highlight the career of the poet, and pays homage to a woman who dedicated her life to defending her rights as a mother. A museum dedicated to keeping alive the memory of Kaneko Misuzu was established in her hometown of Nagato, demonstrating the degree of posthumous recognition achieved by this remarkable woman.

*******************************
Photo: Misuzu Kaneko © Preservation Association of Misuzu Kaneko's Work
*******************************