Tokuda Shūsei: Life and Major Works

Born in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, in 1872; his real name was Sueo. He was counted among the disciples of Ozaki Kōyō in the Ken'yūsha, but after Kōyō's death in 1903 he turned toward realism and became, alongside Tayama Katai and Shimazaki Tōson, a leading figure of Naturalist literature. He established his style with "Arajotai" ("A New Household"), which depicted the ennui and infatuation of married life with cool detachment, and went on to publish one work after another — "Kabi" ("Mold"), "Arakure" ("Rough Living") — that approached the reality of ordinary people's lives with an unsentimental, matter-of-fact prose. His late masterpiece "Shukuzu" ("Miniature"), serialized in a newspaper, was cut short under pressure from the military and left unfinished when he died in 1943 at the age of 71.