更新日：2010年7月5日

Kaionji Chogoro

Novelist. Born in 1901 in Kagoshima Prefecture. His real name was Suetomi Tosaku. After graduating from Kokugakuin University, he began writing fiction while teaching at a junior high school. His novels, "Utakata Zoshi"(Transient notes) and "Fuun" (Threatening situation) won prizes in the fiction contest run by the weekly magazine, SUNDAY MAINICHI, in 1929 and 1932 respectively. By this time, he was now devoting himself full time to writing. His stories, "Tensho Onna Gassen" (Tensho women’s battle) and "Budo Denraiki" (Samurai chronicle) won the Naoki Prize in 1936, providing a boost to his popularity. After the war he published such grand-scale novels as "Moko kitaru" (Mongolians attack), "Taira no Masakado" and "Ten to Chi to" (Heaven and Earth). And most notably, he made unique contributions to the field of biographical novels with works such as "Busho Retsuden" (Biographies of warriors) and "Akunin Retsuden (Biographies of villains)". The trilogy "Ni-hon no Ginnan" (Two ginkgo trees), "Hi no Yama" (Mountain of fire) and "Kaze ni Naru Ki" (Sound of wind in the trees) were inspired by memories of his hometown in Satsuma, present Kagoshima Prefecture. In 1929 he declared his retirement from writing TV dramas, to concentrate on his life work. This was to be a biography of Saigo Takamori, a leading figure in the Meiji Restoration leader, but he died in 1977 at the age of 76, before its completion.

Kaionji moved to Kamakura from Kyoto in 1934, when he made his resolution to pursue the life of a professional writer. He lived at Yukinoshita for about a year and a half. He wrote many historical novels which had Kamakura as their setting and Kamakura often figured in his essays too.