Mimpei Sugiura, a scholar on Italian Renaissance literature, died of a stroke Wednesday evening at a hospital in the town of Tahara, Aichi Prefecture. He was 87.
A native of Aichi, Sugiura began pursuing a literature career after graduating from the University of Tokyo and became a student of tanka under Bunmei Tsuchiya.
Sugiura also showed strong interest in Italian Renaissance literature and published essays on the renaissance movement after he returned to his hometown of Atsumi in southern Aichi after the end of World War II.
While continuing his writing career, Sugiura also plunged into local politics, joined the Japanese Communist Party and served as a member of the Atsumi board of education and later as a member of the Atsumi Municipal Assembly.
Based on that experience, Sugiura wrote "Norisoda Sodoki" ("Uproar on the Nori Farm") in 1953, a satirical chronicle on local politics that caught the attention of literary circles and established his reputation of an avant-garde chronicler.
Sugiura later quit the JCP and published "Shosetsu Watanabe Kazan" ("Watanabe Kazan, a Novel") in 1971, for which he was awarded the Mainichi Publishing Literature Award.