Miyazawa Kenji and the Constellation of National Politics, Regional Recovery, and Literary Legacies in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics

On August 8, 2021, the finale of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Closing Ceremony took the audience on a tour of the galaxy, courtesy of renowned poet Miyazawa Kenji (1896-1933). Acclaimed actress Ōtake Shinobu appeared onstage alongside seven members of the Suginami Junior Chorus to perform Miyazawa's original song "A Stroll Amongst the Stars" (Hoshi meguri no uta).

Scorpio's red eyeThe expansive wings of the eagle AquilaBlue-eyed Canis MinorThe shining coil of Serpens

Orion sings from high abovedew and frost rain downfrom the cloud of Andromeda,the shape of a fish's mouth.

The bear Ursa Major facing North,Extends its paws five times overAbove the forehead of the bear cub Ursa Minor,the steadfast guide to our stroll amongst the stars.

Sharing the stage with the eight performers, a single telescope suggested the spatial transformation of the ceremony venue into a pedagogical site, where the relationship between Ōtake and the members of the Suginami Junior Chorus shifted into that of teacher and students. This simulation of a science class was a clear nod both to Miyazawa's own history as a teacher at what is today the Hanamaki School of Agriculture in Iwate Prefecture, and to the content of the song itself, which introduces the constellations visible on winter and summer nights respectively. As the orchestra swelled, a liquid art projection was mapped onto the floor of the main stage, with swirls of blue, red, and purple reflecting the sea of stars up above in the cosmos. Ōtake and the children ran across the stadium to the main stage, strolling among the very stars they previously observed in class. As the music transitioned from Miyazawa's "A Stroll Amongst the Stars" to Tomita Isao's rendition of Debussy's "The Moon's Light" (Claire de Lune), teacher and students alike looked to the Olympic torch, symbolic of the Olympic's guiding light and as Polaris (sora no meguri no meate), the guide in the night sky. Following their gaze, the camera panned to the torch as it was extinguished, marking the official end of the XXXII Olympiad. After the performance ended, Japan's national audience may have been left wondering why these delayed, controversial Olympic games closed with a nod to the literary legacy of Miyazawa Kenji—if they noticed the reference at all.

Miyazawa is recognized as one of Japan's most prominent literary figures. For the past eighty years, his works have remained some of the most widely read and taught materials in the Japanese elementary school curriculum.¹ Today, he is revered as a provincial poet, author of children's literature, and agrarian activist. His persona has become deified within the national and regional imaginary to the extent that references to his life and literary works are commonly invoked in regional commodity goods and the promotion of tourism to the Tōhoku region, where Miyazawa resided for most of his life. In recent years, his works have been revivified within the context of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake Disaster (Higashi Nihon daishinsai, hereafter referred to as 3/11), and he has since been mobilized as a symbol of rural resilience in the face of devastation.

Prior to his death in 1933, Miyazawa was virtually unknown outside of his home prefecture of Iwate. His alienation from the publishing world of Tokyo (and thus a broader national audience) meant that his literary reach did not transcend local borders until his posthumous ascension to the literary canon. This elevation of Miyazawa to the status of regional-cum-national icon marks a curious turn, but one that fits with the longer-term trajectory followed by invocations of his literary legacy in the cultural imaginary. This is perhaps best exemplified by the enduring afterlife of his seminal poem, "Not Yielding to the Rain" (Ame ni mo makezu, 1932) and its myriad ideological transformations at different moments of historical rupture. Miyazawa's rise to the national stage coincided with Bunpodō Shoten's 1935 publication of his three-volume...