Background
Ozaki was the only son of Kokusai (尾崎 谷斎), a well-known netsuke carver in the Meiji period.
尾崎 紅葉
Ozaki was the only son of Kokusai (尾崎 谷斎), a well-known netsuke carver in the Meiji period.
He was educated at Tokyo Prefecture Middle School and later at Tokyo Imperial University.
His real name was Ozaki Tokutaro (尾崎 徳太郎). At university, he started publishing a literary magazine called "Ken"yūsha" (Friend of the ink stone) in 1885 with some friends. Well known writers Yamada Bimyo and Kawakami Bizan also had material published in the magazine.
Ozaki"s most renowned works were The Usurer (金色夜叉, Konjiki Yasha) (also known as The Golden Demon, which first appeared in 1897 in the Hakubunkan magazine Nihon Taika Ronshū (日本大家論集, lit Japan Expert Treatise Collection)) and Tajō Takon.
His pupil Izumi Kyōka continued to write in Ozaki"s style. In 1954, The Golden Demon was made into a Japanese-language film set in Atami.