Hirotsu Ryūrō: Life and Major Works

Born in 1861 in Nagasaki, Hizen Province; his real name was Naoto. Around 1888 he became acquainted with Ozaki Kōyō and joined the Ken'yūsha coterie, winning recognition with "Zangiku" ("The Last Chrysanthemum"). From around 1895 he turned to a distinctive style depicting the misery of the lower classes and the darker corners of human nature, and with works such as "Kawaru Meiden," "Kurotokage" ("Black Lizard"), and "Imado Shinjū" ("Love Suicide at Imado"), a story of a Yoshiwara courtesan's doomed love and death, he became for a time the leading writer of the so-called "serious novel" (or "misery novel"). He is regarded as a forerunner of Naturalist literature. Among his students was Nagai Kafū, and the novelist and critic Hirotsu Kazuo was his son. He died in 1928 at the age of 68.