, born , was a Japanese novelist and journalist.
Born in
Okayama
is the capital city of Okayama Prefecture in the Chūgoku region of Japan. The city was founded on June 1, 1889. , the city has an estimated population of 720,841 and a population density of 910 persons per km2. The total area is .
The city is ...
into a ''shizoku'' (former
samurai) family,
[Henshall, p.21] he travelled to Tokyo to join the army but instead joined the
Kenyūsha literary society and quickly became celebrated during the
Sino-Japanese War for his patriotic stories in the newspaper ''
Chūō Shinbun''.
A pillar of the Meiji-era literary establishment, and the editor of ''
Kobe Shinbun'' and ''
Taiheiyo'' as well as ''Senshibankō'' and ''Kozakuraodoshi'',
his writing is marred for modern readers by its
imperialist outlook, one example being ''Osero'', a new version of ''
Othello
''Othello'' (full title: ''The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice'') is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare, probably in 1603, set in the contemporary Ottoman–Venetian War (1570–1573) fought for the control of the Island of Cypru ...
'' commissioned for the
Otojiro Kawakami troupe and set in the
Taiwan of 1903, in which the Othello figure, the governor Lt. Gen. Muro Washirō, is a Japanese ''
burakumin'' who has been sent to the island to suppress a rebellion.
He was the first to refer to
sumo
is a form of competitive full-contact wrestling where a ''rikishi'' (wrestler) attempts to force his opponent out of a circular ring (''dohyō'') or into touching the ground with any body part other than the soles of his feet (usually by thr ...
as the
national sport (''kokugi''), inspiring the name of the
Ryōgoku Kokugikan
, also known as Ryōgoku Sumo Hall or Kokugikan Arena, is the name bestowed to two different indoor sporting arenas located in Tokyo. The fist ''Ryōgoku Kokugikan'' opened its doors in 1909 and was located on the lands of the Ekōin temple in Ry ...
stadium built in 1909.
["Kokugikan celebrates 100th anniversary." '' Yomiuri Shimbun.'' 7 June 2009.] He died in
Matsuyama.
Notes
Bibliography
* Kenneth G. Henshall (ed.), Tayama Katai. ''Literary life in Tōkyō, 1885-1915: Tayama Katai's memoirs "Thirty years in Tōkyō."'' Brill Archive, 1987.
* Indra A. Levy. ''Sirens of the Western shore: the westernesque femme fatale, translation, and vernacular style in modern Japanese literature.'' Columbia University Press, 2006.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Emi, Suiin
1869 births
1934 deaths
Japanese writers
People from Okayama