Naka Kansuke: Life and Major Works

Born in Kanda, Tokyo, in 1885. He studied Japanese literature at Tokyo Imperial University, where he won the regard of his teacher, Natsume Sōseki. His autobiographical novel "Gin no Saji" ("The Silver Spoon"), recording childhood memories in delicate prose that captures a child's sensibility exactly as it was, was serialized in the "Tokyo Asahi Shimbun" on Sōseki's enthusiastic recommendation and won him recognition in the literary world. Though counted among Sōseki's disciples, he belonged to no school and walked his own path throughout his life as a writer who stood apart from worldly affairs, a "solitary and lofty" figure. Besides his fiction, he was also a poet who left poetry collections such as "Rōkan" ("Jade"). He died in 1965 at the age of 80.