Sei Itō
Sei Itō in 1954
Native name	伊藤 整
Born	Hitoshi Itō (1905-01-16)16 January 1905 Matsumae,Hokkaidō, Japan
Died	15 November 1969(1969-11-15) (aged 64) Tokyo, Japan
Resting place	Kodaira Cemetery, Tokyo, Japan[1]
Pen name	Sei Itō
Occupation	Writer, translator
Nationality	Japanese
Literary movement	Modernism

Sei Itō (伊藤 整,Itō Sei, 16 January 1905 – 15 November 1969), bornHitoshi Itō (伊藤 整,Itō Hitoshi), was a JapaneseModernist writer of poetry, prose and essays, and a translator.^[2][3]

Sei Itō was born inMatsumae,Hokkaidō, under the name of Hitoshi Itō.^[3] After graduating from Otaru Higher Commercial School (nowOtaru University of Commerce), he moved to Tokyo and entered the Tokyo College of Commerce (nowHitotsubashi University), which he left without a graduate. In 1926, he debuted with the poetry collectionYukiakari no michi (lit. "Snow-lit road").^[2] Together with writers likeJunzaburō Nishiwaki,Riichi Yokomitsu andTomoji Abe, Itō became an exponent of writers who introduced European Modernist literature into Japan in the literary journalShi to shiron ("Poetry and poetic theory"),^[4] and kept aiming at what he termed "modernism" in his own writing throughout his life.^[5]

Starting in 1931, he provided (together with Sadamu Masamatsu and Hisanori Tsuji) the first complete translation ofJames Joyce'sUlysses into Japanese in the 1930s.^[3][6] Itō's 1937 novelStreets of Fiendish Ghosts (Yūki no machi) showed the influence of Joyce'sstream of consciousness technique, and his style became known as "Shin shinri shugi" ("School of new psychology").^[4] In 1950, he caused controversy for his complete translation ofD. H. Lawrence'sLady Chatterley's Lover, which became the case of an obscenity trial.^[2][3] He was awarded theKikuchi Kan Prize in 1963 for hisNihon kindai bungaku taikei ("History of Japanese literary circles") and theJapan Art Academy Prize in 1969.^[3]

• 1926:Yukiakari no michi (poetry collection)
• 1931:A Department Store Called M (M Hyakkaten, short story)
• 1937:Streets of Fiendish Ghosts (Yūki no machi, novel)
• 1940–41:Tokuno Goro no seikatsu to iken (novel)
• 1946–48:Senkichi Narumi (novel)
• 1948:Shōsetsu no hōhō (essay collection)
• 1955–1969:Nihon kindai bungaku taikei

• Itō, Sei (2005). "A Department Store Called M". In Rimer, Thomas J.; Gessel, Van C. (eds.).The Columbia Anthology of Modern Japanese Literature: From Restoration to Occupation, 1868-1945. Translated by Angles, Jeffrey. New York: Columbia University Press.
• Itō, Sei (2008). "Streets of Fiendish Ghosts". In Tyler, William J. (ed.).Modanizumu: Modernist Fiction from Japan, 1913–1938. Translated by Tyler, William J. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press.

The Itō Sei Prize for Literature (Itō Sei bungaku shō) was established in his memory in 1990. Notable recipients includeKenzaburō Ōe andYūko Tsushima.^[2]

• 1905 births
• 1969 deaths
• 20th-century Japanese writers
• Modernist writers
• 20th-century Japanese translators
• People from Matsumae, Hokkaidō
• Writers from Hokkaido

• CS1 Japanese-language sources (ja)
• Articles with short description
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• Articles containing Japanese-language text