Hakuchō Masamune

Born in Okayama Prefecture in 1879, Hakuchō Masamune became an important novelist, critic, and essayist in modern Japan. He studied English literature at Tokyo Senmon Gakkō, the school that later became Waseda University, and began publishing at a time when Japanese writers were experimenting with new, more realistic ways of writing.

He is closely associated with Japanese Naturalism, a literary movement that favored direct language and unsentimental portrayals of ordinary life. Along with fiction, he wrote criticism and essays, and he was known for an independent, skeptical cast of mind that gave his work a distinctive tone.

Masamune lived from March 3, 1879, to October 28, 1962. Today he is remembered as one of the notable literary figures of modern Japan, admired for writing that could be both restrained and psychologically searching.