Takahashi Shinkichi was a poet who played a leading role in the Japanese dadaist movement in the 1920’s. He was inspired by two articles in Yorozuchouhou of 15th August 1920, and attempted to practice a new European literary movement. He declared that he had left dadaist movement in 1924. It is true, however, that his poems and novels encouraged younger poets to create dadaist works in Japan in the 1920’s.
Although a large number of studies have been made on his influence in Japan, little attention has been given to its widespread influence on colonized Korea. Ko Han-Yong, who was in fact Ko Han-Sung, and one of the creators of Korean children’s literary magazine Orini, invited Takahashi Shinkichi to Soeul in September 1924. He wrote an article, “A Story of a Dadaist Who Came to Seoul” in the Korean magazine Kebyokk in October 1924. It was in the same month of October 1924 that André Breton published Manifeste du Surréalisme and tried to change the course of the literary movement from dadaism to surrealism. But it was also then that the young Korean writer attempted to adopt the term “dadaism”
In recent years, there has been a renewal of interest in the reception of dadaism in Korea. Especially, Shin Eun-Ju argues why Ko attempted the introduction of dadaism into Korea. It remains, however, an unsettled question why Ko had to invite a Japanese dadaist at that time, and whether Ko and Takahashi shared the same conception of dadaism. The purpose of this paper is to reconsider the problems involved in the adoption of dadaism in Korea, and to examine the relationship between Japanese colonialism and dadaism.
