Izumi Kyōka: Life and Major Works

Born in 1873 in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture; his real name was Kyōtarō. After going to Tokyo he became a disciple of Ozaki Kōyō, serving as a live-in student and doorman while training as a writer. He drew notice as a writer of "ideas novels" with "Yakō Junsa" ("The Night-Duty Policeman") and "Gekashitsu" ("The Surgery"), and established a firm reputation with "Kōya Hijiri" ("The Holy Man of Mount Kōya"), which depicts a bewitching woman living deep in the mountains. He went on to publish one work after another steeped in fantasy and the grotesque, from stories of love such as "Onna Keizu" ("A Woman's Pedigree") and "Uta Andon" ("The Song Lantern") to plays such as "Yasha ga Ike" ("Demon Pond") and "Tenshu Monogatari" ("The Castle Tower"), and was celebrated as the foremost figure of a Romanticism colored by fantasy and the uncanny. His relationship with the geisha Suzu, whom Kōyō had opposed, is said to have provided the basis for "Onna Keizu." He was also known for extreme fastidiousness, never touching raw water or uncooked food. He died of a lung tumor in 1939 at the age of 65.