更新日：2010年7月5日

Izumi Kyoka

Izumi Kyoka, the novelist, was born in 1873 in Ishikawa Prefecture. His real name was Izumi Kyotaro. After dropping-out from Hokuriku English-Japanese school, he went to Tokyo in 1890 and became a pupil of the novelist and poet Ozaki Koyo the following year.

Kyoka published his first novel, "Kanmuri Yaemon," under the guidance of Koyo. His next work, "Giketsu Kyoketsu" (The Righteous and the Chivalrous), staged as "Taki no Shiraito" (White Threads of the Waterfall), was serialized in the Yomiuri Shimbun and received a good press. He established himself firmly as an up-and-coming writer with "Yako Junsa" (Night Patrol) and "Geka Shitsu" (The Surgery), which were published in the magazine Bungei Kurabu (Literary Club).

He soon departed from the style of an idealist posing sharp questions and began to write stories that were full of fresh lyricism. Works like "Koya Hijiri" (The Itinerant Monk) made him a very popular writer. Other stories included "Onna Keizu" (The Genealogy of Women), "Uta Andon" (Song Lamp) and "Yasha ga Ike" (Demon’s Lake). Kyoka single-mindedly pursued the art of beauty in fiction and did not permit stylistic clarity or nuances of language to distract him. The world of Izumi Kyoka was deeply connected with the traditions of the Noh drama and the stories contain high elements of fantasy and the supernatural.

For a while, he was frowned on by the literary world for his connections with the naturalism movement, but his aesthetic genealogy continues to exert a strong influence on current literature. Kyoka died in 1939 at the age of 65.