Ozaki Koyo

Ozaki Koyo

Ozaki Kōyō ( Japanese 尾崎 紅葉 , real name: Ozaki Tokutarō ( 尾崎 徳 太郎 ); born January 10, 1868 in Shiba , Edo (today: Minato , Tokyo ); † October 30, 1903 ) was a Japanese writer.

Live and act

Ozaki Kōyō attended a preparatory school for the University of Tōkyō when he and three friends founded the literary society "Ken'yūsha" (硯 友 社) in 1885. They published a magazine under the name "Garakuta bunko" (我 楽 多 文庫). It was the first magazine by a group of publishers in Japan.

From 1889 he worked for the newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun , where he was soon appointed editor-in-chief of the prestigious feature pages. Most of his masterpieces appeared there. He published the story "Aobudō" (青 葡萄) in 1895 and the novel Tajō Takon (多情 多 恨) in 1898 , in which he was one of the first to write for this genre instead of classical Japanese in the standard de-aru style .

Ozaki supported a number of writers in their start in the literary work- These include Izumi Kyōka , Oguri Fuyō , Yanagawa Shun'yō (柳川春 葉: 1877-1918) and Tokuda Shūsei . He died of cancer in 1903, leaving behind a whole series of bestsellers, which contain sophisticated experiments in thematic and stylistic terms.

Ozaki's best-known works include “Love confessions of two nuns” (二人 比丘尼 色 懺悔, Ninin bikuni irozange; 1889), “Aloe wood cushions” (キ ャ ラ 枕, Kyara makura; 1890), “Two women” (二人 女 房, Ninin nyōbō) and Sannin zuma (1893). They all have influences from the realistic literature of the Edo period . His last and best work is “The Golden Demon” (金色 夜叉, Konjiki Yasha; 1897 to 1902), which was translated into English as early as 1905 under the title “The Golden Demon”. Perhaps the most popular tale of the Meiji period , it has been translated into plays, films, and songs several times.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Noma: Ozaki Kōyō .
2. ↑ ^{a b} Roman Adrian Cybriwsky: Historical Dictionary of Tokyo . 2nd Edition. Scarecrow Press, 2011, ISBN 978-0-8108-7238-7 , pp. 175 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
3. ^ Peter F. Kornicki: Meiji Japan. Political, Economic and Social History 1868-1912 . Routledge, New York 1998, ISBN 0-415-15618-1 , pp. 276 ( limited preview in Google Book search).

literature

• S. Noma (Ed.): Ozaki Kōyō . In: Japan. An Illustrated Encyclopedia. Kodansha, 1993, ISBN 4-06-205938-X , p. 1177

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