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On the 11th of March 2011, a giant earthquake with a magnitude of 9.0 hit the east coast of northern Japan and triggered a tsunami which caused massive destruction in the Tōhoku region. This event and its nuclear aftermath led to severe psychological stress for the victims. How should one deal with this type of traumatic experience? What can be done to prevent or treat mental disorders like PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder)? Based on the concept of poetry therapy and its Japanese counterpart shiika ryōhō, this paper examines the possibility of dealing with and overcoming trauma by reading and writing literature. The case analysis of Asahigaoka, a district of Minamisanriku in Miyagi Prefecture, illustrates how these theories can be applied. About one month after the threefold catastrophe, survivors gathered together at the local community center to exchange their thoughts about the disaster. They not only talked to each other, but also chose senryū, a classical Japanese short poetic form that consists of seventeen morae, to express themselves. This study shows that in the case of Asahigaoka, daily collective reading, presenting, and writing of senryū was not only a stabilizing factor in the everyday life of the people, but also helped them to open their hearts to others. This led them to talk about their feelings, which resulted in the opportunity to experience a special form of emotional healing.

This paper examines the correlation between political thought and poetic expression by introducing the literary work of Ōishi Seinosuke (1867–1911), a Japanese socialist and physician who was executed during the High Treason Incident of 1910/11. It shows that personal opinions regarding society and government do have a strong influence on the individual style of an author, not only in the matter of content, but also concerning the chosen language and the mode of expression. However, Ōishi himself, who studied in the United States from 1892 to 1895, seems to have been aware of several discrepancies between his own political ideals and the reality of literary creation. In fact, he suddenly abandoned his efforts in Japanese short poetry at the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904 and thenceforth conveyed his political message to the audience via the more conservative way of writing essays. This change of medium indicates that Ōishi no longer thought of poems as an appropriate means to fight the injustice of society and the destructive foreign policy of the Japanese authorities.