更新日：2010年7月5日

Arishima Takeo

Arishima Takeo, novelist and critic, was born in Tokyo in 1878. His younger brothers were Arishima Ikuma, the painter, and Satomi Ton, the novelist.

After graduating from Sapporo Agricultural College (now Hokkaido University), he went to the United States to study at Harvard University and then spent a further year in Europe. On his return to Japan, he began teaching English and ethics at his alma mater.

When the literary magazine Shirakaba (White Birch) was launched in 1910, Takeo became one of the first members and started his own writing activity. He described the inconsistencies of society and the conflict between art and real life through novels such as "Kain no matsuei" (tr The Descendents of Cain) and "Umare izuru nayami."

In 1922, he published "Sengen hitotsu," a manifesto declaring his stance, renouncing his property and resolving to reform his life. He actually converted his large farm in Hokkaido into a cooperative and devoted himself to practising the idealistic philosophy of the Shirakaba group. In the same year, he published a new magazine, "Izumi," in an attempt to break the deadlock in his life and literature. But in the following year, he died with Hatano Akiko at his country house in Karuizawa. He was 45.

Takeo lodged at the Shorei-in temple in the Engakuji temple complex between March and April of 1919 to write the second half of his novel "Aru Onna" (tr A Certain Woman). At that time, Shorei-in was a two-story structure and he rented the rooms on the upper floor.