Other than a brief trip to Kanazawa in December of the following year, Kyōka spent all of his time in the Ozaki household, proving his value to Kōyō through correcting his manuscripts and household tasks. He was accepted, and from that time began life as a live-in apprentice. On 19 November 1891, he called on Kōyō in Ushigome ( 牛込 ?)) (part of present-day Shinjuku) without prior introduction and requested that he be allowed into the school immediately. In November of that year, however, Kyōka's aspiration to an artistic career drove him to Tokyo, where he intended to enter the tutelage of Kōyō himself. At this time he worked as a teacher in private preparatory schools and spent his free time running through yomihon and kusazōshi. That June he took a trip to Toyama Prefecture. It was a great blow to his young mind, and he would attempt to recreate memories of her in works throughout his literary career.Īt a friend's boarding house in April 1889, Kyōka was deeply impressed by Ozaki Kōyō's "Amorous Confessions of Two Nuns" and decided to pursue a career in literature. In April 1883, at ten years old, Kyōka lost his mother, who was 29 at the time. Because of his family's impovershed circumstances, he attended the tuition-free Hokuriku English-Japanese School, run by Christian missionaries.Įven before he entered grade school, young Kintarō's mother introduced him to literature in picture-books interspersed with text called kusazōshi, and his works would later show the influence of this early contact with such visual forms of story-telling. Kyōka was born Kyōtarō Izumi on Novemin the Shitashinmachi section of Kanazawa, Ishikawa, to Seiji Izumi ( 泉 清次 Izumi Seiji ?), a chaser and inlayer of metallic ornaments, and Suzu Nakata ( 中田 鈴 Nakata Suzu ?), daughter of a tsuzumi hand-drum player from Edo and younger sister to lead protagonist of the Noh theater, Kintarō Matsumoto. Life Before Tokyo File:Kanazawa-C-3047.jpg His plays are particularly popular in Japan, and his Demon Pond ( 夜叉ヶ池 Yasha ga Ike ?) is still performed. Works translated into English include "The Holy Man of Mount Koya", “A Song by Lantern-light” ( 歌行燈 Uta'andon ?), and "A Tale of Three Who Were Blind" ( 三人の盲の話 sannin no mekura no hanashi ?), though a majority have yet to be translated. Known for a characteristic brand of Romanticism preferring tales of the supernatural heavily influenced by works of the earlier Edo period in Japanese arts and letters. Kyōka first gained acclaim for his “The Operating Room” ( 外科室 Gekashitsu ?) and “Night Watchman” ( 夜行巡査 Yakōjunsa ?) his most famous work is “The Holy Man of Mount Koya” ( 高野聖 Kōyahijiri ?).
0 kommentar(er)
