Tokutomi Roka: Life and Major Works

Born in 1868 in Minamata, Higo Province (now Minamata, Kumamoto Prefecture); his real name was Kenjirō. He was a younger brother of the journalist and thinker Tokutomi Sohō. He studied at Dōshisha and other schools, where he was baptized as a Christian, and joined his brother's Min'yūsha, working as a journalist, translator, and critic. The novel "Hototogisu" ("The Cuckoo"), serialized in the "Kokumin Shimbun" from 1898 to the following year, depicting the tragic fate of a young bride afflicted with tuberculosis, caused an unprecedented sensation and made him an overnight sensation as a bestselling author. He followed it with the beautifully observed nature essays of "Shizen to Jinsei" ("Nature and Life") and the autobiographical novel "Omoide no Ki" ("Footprints in the Snow"). Deeply drawn to Tolstoy, he traveled to Russia in 1906 and succeeded in meeting him in person. In his later years he retired to Kasuya, on the outskirts of Tokyo, and lived a life of simple farming and reading, recording it in works such as "Mimizu no Tawagoto" ("An Earthworm's Idle Chatter"). He died in 1927 at the age of 58.