Japanese National Poet Who Wrote the Theme Song for 'Atom' Passes Away at 92

Shuntaro Tanikawa Passes Away from Old Age
Renowned as Japan's National Poet for '20 Oku Kounen no Kodoku'

Shuntaro Tanikawa (谷川俊太郞), a master of modern Japanese poetry who wrote the lyrics for the theme song of the nostalgic popular animation "Astro Boy," recently passed away due to old age.

On the 19th, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported that he passed away on the 13th at the age of 92. Born in Tokyo, Japan in 1931, Tanikawa's father, the famous philosopher Tetsuzo Tanikawa, showed poems that Shuntaro wrote while in high school to a literary editor, which led to the publication of his poetry collection "2 Billion Light Years of Solitude" in 1952 when he was 20 years old. This collection conveyed lyrical and beautiful messages amid the dark postwar atmosphere, creating a great impact. Since then, he established himself as Japan’s national poet.

The nostalgic popular animation 'Astro Boy'. YouTube

He was also famous for writing the lyrics for the Japanese TV animation theme song of "Tetsuwan Atom," drawn by the legendary Japanese manga artist Osamu Tezuka. Although the song is the same as the theme song of the animation "Astro Boy" broadcast in Korea, the lyrics differ. Additionally, he collaborated with many masters beyond the genre of poetry, including writing the lyrics for the theme song of Hayao Miyazaki’s animation "Howl’s Moving Castle."

He also wrote radio drama scripts and plays, and translated works such as the American cartoon "Peanuts" by Charles Schulz, famous for the character Snoopy, demonstrating his versatility in various fields.

Japan's national poet Tanikawa. Photo by Kyodo News

His major works have been included in Japanese language textbooks and have been loved by many Japanese people across generations. His poems have been translated into more than 20 languages worldwide, including Korean, English, and Chinese. When he visited Korea in 2015 to coincide with the publication of a poetry collection, he said he hoped his poems would be thought of "as something like weeds growing casually on the street." He also explained the theme running through his works as "an obsession to express myself not as an individual in human society, but as a self living in the universe."

In 2015, he also published a poetry collection of dialogues with Shin Kyung-rim, a representative Korean poet who passed away in May of this year, titled "All Became Stars and Entered My Body," released in both Korea and Japan.