Born in Takamatsu, Kagawa, into a family that had served for generations as Confucian scholars of Takamatsu domain. The family was poor, however, and he is said to have once copied out a textbook by hand because he could not afford to buy it.
Around this time, it is said, he practically lived in the Takamatsu library and read nearly every book it held. This reading laid the foundation of his later strength as a writer.
After passing through several schools, he entered the First Higher School. His classmates included Akutagawa Ryūnosuke and Kume Masao, who became his literary companions.
Shortly before graduating, he left the school, reportedly taking the blame for a cloak a friend had stolen. He then went on to Kyoto Imperial University to study English literature.
With Akutagawa and others he joined the coterie magazine Shinshichō (its fourth series). After graduating from Kyoto Imperial University he moved to Tokyo and became a reporter for the newspaper Jiji Shinpō.
He published the play The Father Returns, about a father who abandoned his family and comes home in old age. When later staged, it moved audiences deeply.
He published the story Tadanao-kyō Gyōjōki and was recognized as a writer. With such "theme stories" that drew the workings of the human heart clearly and plainly, he became a popular author.
He published Beyond Love and Hate, in which a monk spends decades digging a tunnel through a rock cliff to atone for having killed a man. It is based on the legend of the Ao no Dōmon tunnel in Ōita.
His newspaper serial novel Madame Pearl was a sensation, and he also achieved great success as an author of popular fiction read by the masses.
He founded the magazine Bungei Shunjū. Started to give young writers a place to publish, it was a huge success and later grew into one of Japan's leading publishing houses.
In memory of his late friends Akutagawa Ryūnosuke and Naoki Sanjūgo, he created the Akutagawa Prize and the Naoki Prize. Both still continue as gateways to success for new writers.
After the war he was purged from public office because of his wartime activities. He would die the following year without seeing the purge lifted.
He died of illness in Tokyo. Not only as a writer but also in building systems to protect writers' livelihoods and in publishing, he left a great mark and was called the grand old man of the literary world.
Yamada KōsakuHagiwara SakutarōTanizaki Jun'ichirōNakayama ShinpeiKagawa ToyohikoKishida RyūseiKanakuri ShisōAkutagawa Ryūnosuke
People of the Taishō period ・ People by period
Based on facts found in textbooks and biographies. Uncertain points are marked as such.