Background
Masajiro Kojima was born in the plebeian Shitaya district of Tokyo in the family of clothing merchants.
Masajiro Kojima was born in the plebeian Shitaya district of Tokyo in the family of clothing merchants.
While attending Keio University Kojima Masajiro studied Edo period Japanese literature and the works of European authors. He was especially attracted to the works of Nagai Kafu and Mori Ogai. While still a student at Keio Jniversity showed literary talent in his compositions. One such composition entitled "Orthography," which pointed out grammatic and other technical errors of established writers was favorably noticed by Ogai Mori. Kojima Masajiro graduated from the university in 1918.
His literary career began as a student, when he contributed short stories to the journal of Keio University's literature department, Mita Bungaku. After graduation in 1918, Masajiro Kojima was asked to stay behind and teach the classics and literature. He worked with children's literature, editing the literary magazine, "Akai Tori" ("Red Bird"), and writing tales for children.
However, Masajiro Kojima established himself as a mainstream author with serious, adult-orientated stories, such as "Ichimae Kanban", ("One Card") based on the life of a professional storyteller, and "Family", the story of relatives who were forced out of their home, he later gained a reputation as a writer of popular fiction with such stories as "Midori no Kishi" ("Green Knight"), "Kaiso" ("Seaweed"), and "Hitozuma Tsubaki"("Tsubaki, a Married Woman"). As many of his works dealt with human relationships, his writings were a favorite of movie directors and script writers.
After World War II he wrote a number of biographical works, including "Taifu no Me no yo no" ("Like the Eye of a Typhoon"), (later retitled, "Suzuki Miekichi"), "Ogai", "Kafu", "Mantaro", about the three writers he respected, and Encho.
Masajiro Kojima lived briefly in Kamakura, Kanagawa prefecture in the 1930s but returned to Tokyo shortly afterwards. He returned to Kamakura in 1944, where he lived till his death in 1994 at the age of 100. He broke his thigh in an accident at home in 1983, and was hospitalized for the remainder of his days, although he kept writing from his hospital bed until well into the 90s. His grave is at the temple of Tenno-ji in Yanaka Cemetery.
Nagai Kafu, Mori Ogai
