Gaku Konishi


Gaku Konishi was a Japanese physics professor at Kwansei Gakuin University and an Esperantist.

Esperanto movement

Konishi was a committed Esperantist who first began learning Esperanto in 1948, at the age of 13. Within the Esperanto movement he was active in the antinationalist SAT association and in the Kansai League of Esperanto Groups, the second-largest Japanese Esperanto federation. He was formerly a member of the Academy of Esperanto and a Japanese Esperanto Institute councillor.
Konishi translated extensively from Japanese into Esperanto, including prose works like Yasunari Kawabata's Snow Country and of Kenji Miyazawa's Night on the Galactic Railroad, etc. He translated many songs, compiled songbooks and composed original songs, melodies and poetry. He also wrote original works in Esperanto. A collection of his science fiction works appeared in 1976 under the title Vage tra la dimensioj.
He also wrote textbooks, was chief editor of Nova Esperanto-Japana Vortaro, an Esperanto-Japanese dictionary published by the Japanese Esperanto Institute, and was active in many other areas. He wrote in Japanese about Esperanto grammar and contributed to the propagation of the Esperanto movement by copy-editing its book and magazine articles for correct grammar.

Awards

For his science fiction novel La kosmoŝipo Edeno n-ro 5 he was awarded an honourable mention in the prose category at the 1965 Belartaj Konkursoj, the Esperanto movement's annual fine arts competition. In October 2000 the Japanese Esperanto Congress bestowed the Premio Ossaka on Konishi, in recognition of "his outstanding translations of Japanese belles-lettres and songs into Esperanto." Given in memory of Kenji Osaka, father of the Japanese Esperanto movement, the Premio Ossaka is the most prestigious adjudicated award for Esperantists in Japan.
At the opening of the 2007 World Congress of Esperanto in Yokohama he was elected an honorary member of the Universal Esperanto Association (UEA)

Other works

Original Esperanto writings

Promenado en gramatiko. Esperanto grammar in Japanese medium. JELK, Osaka: 1986. 104 pages. Pado de Gramatiko, primer, anthology and grammar.
  • Songbooks Venu amikoj and Kantoj karmemoraj.

Translations into Esperanto

La ĝemelaj steloj Notoj de la delto, reportage on the nuclear bombing of the city of HiroshimaLa ĉevalo de Motizuki, choral suite from Katuiti Honda's Vilaĝo en batalkampo, reportage of the Vietnam War

Translation of Japanese literature