Kawakami Bizan

Kawakami Bizan

Kawakami Bizan ( Japanese 川 上 眉山 , actually Kawakami Akira (川 上 亮), stage name Empa Sannin (煙波 山人); born April 16, 1869 in Osaka ; died June 15, 1908 ) was a Japanese writer of the Meiji period . The so-called "Kannen-Schōsetsu" (観 念 小説), about "concept novella", goes back to him.

life and work

Kawakami Bizan studied at Tōkyō University . He was friends with Ozaki Kōyō and Yamada Bimyō and at the end of 1886 he joined a group called "Ken'yū-sha" (勧 誘 社). Later, from around 1893, he was friends with writers who wrote for the magazine "Bungakukai" (文学界). From about 1904 he had contact with a group that had come together in the "Ryūdokai" (竜 土 会).

Kawakami's earliest works fall into two categories: melodramatic love stories and short, colored descriptive pieces. The second category includes the “Futokoro Nikki” (ふ と こ ろ 日記), for example “Diary of Inner Feelings”, a Haibun- style travelogue that is considered Kawakami's masterpiece.

His novels became very pessimistic when he turned to social criticism, which became his brief "can" period. This phase ended in 1895 and produced works such as "Ōsakazuki (大阪 づ き), Shokikan (書記 官) and Uraomote (う ら お も て)". Kawakami earned the greatest approval precisely for these works, which were marked by an annoyance to human beings and which went to the limits of what is socially permitted. The works in the years 1902 to 1903 are all set in a rural setting, they can be seen as a further development of the Kannen-Shosetsu to the society-related novella. The last works from 1903 to 1907, “Kannon-iwa” (観 音 岩) and “Double Obi ” (二 重 帯), show influences of naturalism with a focus on sex.

As a writer, Kawakami strove to break away from old patterns in fiction. Too often, however, his characterizations are stereotypical, his action romantic, sketchy and occasionally implausible.

Kawakami died, weakened by self-doubt in recent years, but unexpectedly in 1908 by suicide.

literature

• S. Noma (Ed.): Kawakami Bizan . In: Japan. An Illustrated Encyclopedia. Kodansha, 1993, ISBN 4-06-205938-X , p. 1132.

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . So Kawakami is the family name, Bizan the first name.