| Ken Hirano | |
| Native Name: | 平野 謙 |
| Birth Date: | October 30, 1910 |
| Birth Place: | Kamigyō-ku, Kyoto, Empire of Japan |
| Death Place: | Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan |
| Nationality: | Japanese |
| Occupation: | Literary critic |
| Alma Mater: | Tokyo Imperial University |
| Known For: | The "politics and literature debate" (1946-1947); the "Parutai debate" (1960); the "pure literature debate" (1961-1962) |
| Notable Works: | Shōwa bungaku shi ("A History of Shōwa Literature," 1959) |
was the pen name of a prominent Japanese literary critic and longtime professor of literature at Meiji University. His real name was .
Hirano was one of the seven founders of the journal Kindai Bungaku ("Modern Literature"), and played a starring role in the "politics and literature debates" of the 1940s and 1950s, as well as the "pure literature debate" of the early 1960s. In 1977, he was awarded the prestigious Imperial Prize from the Japan Art Academy.
Ken Hirano was born Akira Hirano in Kyoto, Japan on October 30, 1910. His father was a Buddhist monk who wrote literary criticism on the side. When he was five years old, Hirano's family moved to Gifu prefecture, where he grew up. As a teenager, Hirano refused his father's wish that he follow in his footsteps and become a monk, and instead enrolled in Eighth High School in Nagoya, where he was classmates with Shūgo Honda and Shizuo Fujieda.
In 1930, Hirano enrolled at Tokyo Imperial University, but dropped out in 1933, before re-enrolling in 1937 and graduating with a degree in literature in 1940. During his university years, Hirano became involved in illegal Marxist organizing as well as the Proletarian literature movement, but distanced himself from these activities as state repression ramped up in wartime. After graduating, Hirano spent part of World War II working in the Cabinet Information Bureau.
In 1945, Hirano co-founded the influential literary journal Kindai Bungaku, along with Shūgo Honda, Yutaka Haniya, Masahito Ara, Kiichi Sasaki, Hideo Odagiri, and Shizuka Yamamuro.
In 1946, Hirano touched off the so-called "politics and literature debate" (seiji to bungaku ronsō) when he published his essay "Hitotsu no hansōtei" ("An Antithesis") in the journal Shinseikatsu. Thereafter, a vigorous debate emerged between the proletarian writers affiliated with the New Japanese Literature Association (Shin Nihon Bungakkai) and those affiliated with Hirano's Kindai Bungaku group. Hirano called for the proletarian writers in the New Japanese Literature Association to carry out more thoroughgoing self-reflection regarding their wartime responsibility. More importantly, Hirano criticized the "primacy of politics" (seiji no yūisei) in their literature, and called for a more diverse literature that honored each author's individuality. Hirano was supported in his stance by Masahito Ara, Kiichi Sasaki, Hideo Odagiri, and others, and was vigorously opposed by Nakano Shigeharu, Korehito Kurahara, and others associated with the New Japanese Literature Association.
From 1950 Hirano accepted a position as a professor of literature at newly-formed Sagami Women's University. In 1957, he moved to Meiji University, where he taught until his death in 1978.
In 1960, Hirano set off the so-called "Parutai debate"