Background
Aizan Yamaji was born in 1864 in Edo, he was a son of a retainer of the shogunate; his personal name was Yakichi.
Aizan Yamaji was born in 1864 in Edo, he was a son of a retainer of the shogunate; his personal name was Yakichi.
The Restoration reduced his family to poverty, and he was obliged to educate himself. He became an assistant teacher in a primary school in Shizuoka and at the same time studied English at a Christian church.
In 1889 he went to Tokyo, where he studied at the Toyo Eiwa Gakko.
In 1891 he became chief editor of Gokyo, a magazine put out by the Methodist League. In 1892 he became acquainted with Tokutomi Soho and joined the Min’yusha, the publishing company founded by Tokutomi. Thereafter he began to publish distinctive articles on history and literature in Kokumin no Tomo, the magazine put out by the Min’yusha, and elsewhere, and carried on literary debates with Takayama Chogvu and Kitamura Tokoku.
In 1899, on the recommendation of Tokutomi Soho, he was made chief editor of the Shinano Mainithi Shimbun in Nagano Prefecture. He returned to Tokyo in 1903 and founded a private magazine called Dokuritsu Hyoron. At the time of the Russo-Japanese War, he came out in favor of the war and even changed the name of his magazine to Nichi-Ro Senso Jikki, or ‘‘Authentic Record of the Russo-Japanese War,” though he changed back to the original name after the conclusion of the war. From around this time, he began to advocate national socialism as an antidote to the socialism preached by the Marxists and in 1905 he formed the Kokka Shakaito (National Socialist Party).
He published works on history and biography in Kokumin Zasshi, a magazine that he founded in 1910, as well as in other magazines such as Chüô Koron and Taiyo, and made a reputation for himself as an independent scholar of history. Though associated with no academic institution, he lectured on occasion at Waseda, Keid, and Doshisha universities. In his late years, he worked on a history of the Japanese people, though it never reached the publication stage.
He received baptism.