Sekiguchi Tokimasa
Tokimasa Sekiguchi (born in Tokyo) took up studies in French literature and comparative culture at the University of Tokyo in the 1970s and, as a graduate student on a scholarship awarded by the Polish government, Polish studies at the Jagiellonian University. Between 1992 and 2013, he taught Polish culture at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. In 2000‒2004 Tokimasa was Vice-President of Bristol, an international organisation of teachers of Polish language and culture. In 2013, he decided to take early retirement to devote himself fully to writing and translating. Prof Sekiguchi has published a number of books, including Pōrando to tasha (Polska i jej Obcy; Tokio 2014, published by Misuzu Shobō) and Eseje niecałkiem polskie (Kraków 2016, Universitas).
Sekiguchi Tokimasa is also a co-organiser of the NGO Forum Poland in Japan, which brings together all those interested in Poland – researchers representing various fields of science, artists and representatives of the Polish community. In 2008, jointly with the International Cultural Centre in Kraków, Prof. Sekiguchi initiated itinerant seminars called The Heritage of the Borderlands intended for Japanese scholars of various fields in Poland and Central Europe. The seminars take place every two years and each time focus on a different Central European border region (six editions have been held so far ‒ in Ukraine; Lithuania; Belarus; Slovakia and Hungary; Upper and Lower Silesia; Czech Republic, Moravia and Slovakia).
Sekiguchi Tokimasa’s work for the sake of promoting Polish culture has been recognised by the Polish authorities: he has been awarded the Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland (2020), the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland (2009), Silver Medal for Merit to Culture Gloria Artis (2015), to name a few. Professor Sekiguchi’s translation work was also recognised with the ZAiKS’s (Polish Society of Authors and Composers) Literary Award for Translation of Polish Literature in 2018 and the 2019 Fryderyk Chopin Society’s Award for outstanding achievement in promoting the Chopin’s work (Prof Sekiguchi translated two volumes of the newest complete edition of Chopin’s correspondence, which has been published only in Japanese so far). In 2021 the Senate of the Polish Republic conferred on Prof Sekiguchi the title of Ambassador of Polish Language outside the Country’s Borders. Also in 2021 the Polish Book Institute awarded Sekiguchi the Transatlantic Prize.
The works of Polish literature that Prof. Sekiguchi has translated into Japanese include such masterpieces as Jan Kochanowski’s Laments; Ballads and Romances and Forefathers’ Eve (Vilinius Chapters) by Adam Mickiewicz; Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz’s Mother Joan of the Angels; Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz’s plays; Yvonne and Princess of Burgundy by Witold Gombrowicz; Stanisław Lem’s Hospital of the Transfiguration, Provocation and The Invincible; and The Doll by Bolesław Prus, for the translation of which in 2017 he was awarded Japan’s prominent Literary Award, Yomiuri. Prof. Sekiguchi’s Japanese translations also include Jerzy Grotowski’s Performer and a DVD with Tadeusz Kantor’s The Dead Class.
