Background
Bin Ueda was born on October 30, 1874 in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan.
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Bin Ueda was born on October 30, 1874 in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan.
Bin Ueda graduated from Literature Department of Tokyo University in 1897.
From 1899 Bin Ueda served successively as a professor at Tokyo Higher Normal School and from 1909 at College of Literature at Kyoto University. He specialized in English literature and was also versed in French literature.
In his later years, Bin Ueda turned his scholastic interest to folklore and legends. In the poetical world, he held a unique position as a translator of foreign poems and as a critic. He was a strong supporter of the symbolic school of the Meiji Era and was one of the founders of the hedonistic school of the late Meiji Era.
His translations of foreign poems are collected in two books respectively entitled Chokaion (Sound of the Tide) and Miotsukushi (A Pile in the River), the latter of which was written in the so-called bibun (elegant prose) style that was prevalent during the 20th and 30th year of the Meiji Era (between 1887 and 1906). Among his scholastic works are Isoppu Monogatari-ko (A Study of Aesop's Fables) and Bosatsu Monogatari Yurai (History of the Tales of Bodhi-sattva). As a literary critic, he was good in appreciative criticism rather than in ideological interpretation.
Bin Ueda also wrote many essays which show his deep knowledge of the history of art and are held to be of high artistic value. As a result of the profound interest, he took in Dante, he turned out Shisei Dante (Dante, the Great Poet) and other articles on the poet and laid the foundation for the study of Dante in Japan.