About the Sub-Collections

In addition to the materials in his personal collection, Takazawa acquired smaller collections of social movement materials from several other people. These have been included in the Takazawa Collection with their permission. In some cases these materials are identified as sub-collections from specific donors, while in other instances the donors preferred to remain anonymous. These sub-collections broaden the scope of the Takazawa collection in time, geographic range, and movement variety.

Aihara Fumio was a participant in the prewar Japanese Left who worked as a professional translator and editor. In the postwar era he and his wife, activist Furuya Yoshiko, remained active in social movements and became supporters of the New Left during the 1960s and 1970s. After their deaths, family members gave their books and personal papers to Takazawa Kōji, who subsequently arranged to have them included as a named sub-collection in the Takazawa Collection. The Aihara-Furuya materials contain a number of very early prewar Japanese translations of books by European Marxists that were translated by Aihara Fumio. Some correspondence between Aihara and these authors, such as Gyorgy Lukacs, is also in the collection, along with some German and English originals of books and serials that Aihara owned.

Furuya Yoshiko was active in the Beheiren anti-Vietnam war citizens’ movement in the late 1960s, in the women’s movement, and in many other social movements. The collection includes her Beheiren materials and clipping files on protest events, as well as copies of articles she wrote on the women’s movement and other subjects. Personal papers in this sub-collection were unsealed in the year 2000 but have not yet been catalogued.

Takeishi Kazumi was a student activist during the late 1960s and early 1970s who participated in the organization Dai Yon Intānashonaru, Nihon shibu (Fourth International, Japan branch, nicknamed Dai Yon Intā), which engaged in protest activities as part of the Japanese New Left. He later returned to his native Okinawa, where he became a publisher and used book dealer and was active in local labor and anti-base movements. The Takeishi sub-collection contains publications from Dai Yon Intānashonaru plus extensive primary materials from social movements in Okinawa during the 1970s and 1980s.

Hirai Yoshio was a Waseda University student and participant in Kyōsanshugisha Dōmei during the 1960 Anti-Security Treaty protests. The collection contains his materials from this period. Hirai continues to be active in citizens movements.

Gomi Masahiko was a Waseda University student who participated in various protest movements as a “non-sect” activist from 1967 on, and was involved in the Beihan Gakuren organization at Waseda. He helped organize the nationwide 1968 Enterprise protests, and subsequently was the central figure in the founding of the New Left bookstore cooperative Mosakusha. The collection contains his files from the organization of several major protest events of the late 1960s, as well as publications from this period.