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Kitahara Hakushū And The Creative Nature Of Children Through Dōyō, Gregory Diehl

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

In 1923, the poet Kitahara Hakushū wrote an essay entitled “Dōyō shikan” 童謡私観 or “Philosophy of Dōyō.” In it, he described a perspective on children that valued their innately creative potential. Hakushū felt that this potential was something that every child had and that could be enriched and drawn out through dōyō 童謡 (children's songs.) Hakushū’s views in this sense challenged the prevailing attitudes in the Taishō period toward children and toward the function that children’s songs and poetry should serve.

Despite Hakushū’s prominence as a poet, the “Dōyō shikan” has never been translated or closely analyzed in …