Eisuke Takemura, the most important Gramscian scholar in Japan, died on February 5. His numerous writings are highly regarded by both Gramscian and non-Gramscian students as pioneering studies in Japan. His sudden death means a great loss to the future development of our work.
He led a complex life involving many different roles. After he graduated from Tokyo University, he chose to work as an official in the Ministry of Education. There he rose very high in the ranks; but he gave up his splendid position to dedicate himself to the labor movement where he became the secretary of a trade union. At that time--the end of the 1950s--he came across Gramsci's name and began to study his work. From 1961 to 1965 the first extensive translations of Gramsci appeared in Japanese (Selected Works of Gramsci [Guramushi Senshû], Tokyo: Gôdô shuppan, 1961-65. 6 volumes). Though this was an important development which attracted the attention of many intellectuals and students, Takemura thought that its presentation tended to make Gramsci's thought "too directly a political instrument" (a defect all too frequently apparent in the the Gramscian literature in a number of other countries). Going against this current, Takemura consciously tried to evaluate Gramsci's achievement within the political and cultural context of his times. He carefully read the first Einaudi edition of Gramsci's Opere. The fruit of those years of study appeared in 1975, under the title of Gramsci's Thought (Guramushi no shisô. Tokyo: Aoki- shoten, 1975. Pp.294). This book represented a turning point in the history of Gramscian studies in Japan--and brought Takemura a professorship at the Nihon Fukushi University in Nagoya.
Professor Takemura then participated in the publication in Japanese of the first volume (Notebooks 1 & 2) of the critical edition of the Quaderni del carcere (Gokuchû nôto 1. Tokyo: Otsuki Shoten, 1981. Pp. xii+577). Unfortunately, this project was broken off, but he continued to publish a number of essays on Gramsci. Several of his essays were collected and published in 1989 in the volume Gramsci in Modern History (Gendai-shi ni okeru Gramushi. Tokyo: Aoki-shoten, 1989. pp. 238). A major point of this book was his continued rejection of intrumental interpretations of Gramsci; he stressed the continuing relevance of Gramsci's work, affirming its value as a classic.
Eisuke Takemura, who was a member of the International Gramsci Society since its inception, will always be remebered for his serious intellectual approach to Gramscian studies.