更新日：2010年7月5日

Hayashi Fusao

Hayashi Fusao, the novelist and critic, was born in 1903 in Oita Prefecture. His real name was Goto Toshio. He had an interest in political thought from his early days and he led a Marxist arts seminar with Shigeharu Nakano while a student of the Tokyo Imperial University.

In 1926 the publication of his short story "Ringo" (Apple) in Bungei Sensen (Literary Battlefront) marked his beginnings as a proletarian writer. He was later imprisoned for his involvement in the Kyodai incident and on his release in 1932, he wrote "Seinen" (Youth). This was quickly followed by "Bungaku no Tame ni" (For Literature), "Sakka to shite" (As an artist) and others, denying the subordination of literature to politics.

Hayashi joined Kobayashi Hideo to publish the journal Bungakukai (Literary World) in 1933. He wrote "Roman Shugisha no Techo" (Notes of a Romanticist) in 1935, declaring his estrangement from Marxism and in 1936, he renounced his connections with proletarian art.

After the 2nd World War, he played an active part in promoting the genre of the "midway" novel and published "Musuko no Seishun" (My Son’s Youth) and "Tsuma no Seishun" (My Wife’s Youth) and many others, establishing himself as a popular writer. But in "Dai Toa Senso Kotei Ron," an apologia for Japanese militarism in the 2nd World War, he caused a fuss and revealed his new face as an ultra nationalist.

Hayashi first resided in Kamakura in 1932, living in Omachi and after a temporarily move to the Izu peninsula, returned in 1936 to live at Jyomyoji until his death in 1975 at the age of 72.