Kanagaki Robun

Kanagaki Robun

Kanagaki Robun ( Japanese 仮 名 垣 魯 文 ; real name: Nozaki Bunzō ; born January 6, 1829 in Edo ; † October 8, 1894 in Tokyo ) was a Japanese writer.

Life

The son of a fisherman became a student of Gesaku author Hanagasa Bunkyō after training with a merchant in 1843 . In the following year he made his debut with a short story. His attempts to establish himself as a freelance writer were initially unsuccessful. It was not until his writings on the Ansei Edo earthquake in 1855 that he achieved any notable success.

Based on Jippensha Ikku's humorous story Dōchū hizakurige (On the way on shoemaker's pony ) Kanagaki wrote a whole series of Hizakurige stories in the mid-1850s. A successful work of independent literary rank he succeeded in 1860 with Kokkei fuji mōde (The comical pilgrimage to Fuji), a work in which he represented Western influences in Japan. This was followed by Osana etoki bankoku-banashi (A picture book for children with stories from all over the world, 1861) and Bankoku jimbutsu zue (illustrations about people from all over the world).

After attempts in various genres, a successful new parody of the stories Ikkus Bankoku kōkai: Seyō dōchū hizakurige (With the ship around the world: On shoemaker's pony in the west) appeared in the wake of Fukuzawa Yukichi's reports from the western world . In 1872 and 1873 Kanagaki wrote the textbook Shusho eiri: Sekai no miyakoji (annotated illustrations: countries of the world) and the non-fiction book Seyō ryōritsū (connoisseurs of western cuisine) on behalf of the Ministry of Education (Kyōbushō ). As a government official between 1873 and 1875, he was responsible for educating people about Western manners and customs in Kanagawa Province.

In 1875 he founded the magazine Kanayomi shimbun , for which he wrote the widely read column series Myōmyō kimon (Myōmyōs strange messages) under the pseudonym Myōmyō Dōjin . In 1879 he took over the management of the magazine Iroha shimbun . In the same year he founded Japan's first theater magazine Kabuki shimpō with Kubota Hikosaku .

At the same time Kanagiki wrote several non-fiction books, of which especially Takahashi Oden yasha monogatari (The story of the demonized Takahashi Oden ) and Gurantishi-den Yamoto bunshō (The biography of Mr. Grant - a Japanese hymn) had some success. From 1881 he wrote serial stories for the journal Konnichi shimbun . In 1884 his autobiography Haishi nendai: Rosei ga yume no ki (A literary age: Robun's dreamlike notes) was published.

After the death of his son in 1886 and the failure of several works, Kanagaki officially withdrew from the literary scene in 1890 and spent the remaining years of his life as an antique dealer.

swell

• Stephan Köhn: "Reports on what was seen and heard from the Ansei period" , Part 1, Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, 2002, ISBN 9783447045469 , pp. 14-26
• Scott Miller: "Historical Dictionary of Modern Japanese Literature and Theater," Scarecrow Press, 2009, ISBN 9780810858107 , p. 46
• Encyclopaedia Britannica - Kanagaki Robun

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Kanagaki is the family name, Robun the first name.