Kosugi Tengai

Kosugi Tamezō, known by his pen name Kosugi Tengai, was a Japanese novelist of the Meiji, Taishō and Shōwa eras. He is considered the founder of the naturalism movement in modern Japanese literature.

Biography

Kosugi was born in what is now Misato, Akita Prefecture. He moved to Tokyo in 1886 to attend the English Law College , a story about a geisha and her relationship with men from different social strata in 1900. He followed with a sequel, Hayariuta, in 1902, which was one of his most successful works. Kosugi attempted to write in a realistic and objective manner, without intruding the thoughts or comments of the author into the story narrative, which was considered rather revolutionary for the time. In the forward to Hatsu su gata, he commented that he "seeks to move the reader not by the unusual, but by what is normal and average.". Familiar with Zola and other French authors, his experimentation towards realism is considered a forerunner of a Japanese style of naturalism. Although often compared to his contemporary, Nagai Kafū, Kosugi has been criticized for having two-dimensional characters who meet predictable fates based on family or environmental situations.
Kosugi was elected to the Japan Art Academy in 1948. In his later years, he also turned towards the genre of historical fiction.
His grave is at the sub-temple of Myōkō-in, at Kenchō-ji in Kamakura.
Hatsu Sugata '' was made into a movie and released on March 5, 1936 in Japan. It starred Ichiro Tsukita and Chiyoko Okura and was directed by Japan's first female director, Tazuko Sakane.