Born in Shitaya, Edo, the fourth son of a family in the shogunate's service. His siblings were gifted: his elder brother Gunji Shigetada became a naval officer known for exploring the Kuril Islands, and his younger sisters Kōda Nobu and Andō Kō became musicians.
Around this time, with his family hard up, he left school, but went to the library then housed at Yushima Seidō and read everything he could find: Chinese classics, Buddhist texts and Edo-period fiction. This reading became the source of Rohan's wide knowledge.
After finishing a school for telegraph technology, he was posted as a telegraph technician to Yoichi in Hokkaidō. Around this time, it is said, reading works such as Tsubouchi Shōyō's The Essence of the Novel deepened his longing for literature.
Unable to suppress his love of literature, he quit his job and set out for Tokyo. Penniless, he walked much of the way and slept in the open; his record of the trip was later published as Tokkan Kikō. His pen name Rohan is said to come from a verse he composed on this journey.
His novel The Elegant Buddha made him famous overnight. In this story a young Buddhist sculptor carves a statue of the woman he loves; it portrays, in powerful prose, a person in pursuit of an ideal.
He published his masterpiece The Five-Storied Pagoda. It depicts the awkward carpenter Jūbei risking his life to build a five-story pagoda, and its craftsman's pride and passion won the hearts of many readers.
Around this time he became as popular as Ozaki Kōyō, and the period was called the Kō-Ro era after their two names. In contrast to Kōyō's elegant, realistic style, Rohan was known for a manly style in pursuit of ideals.
His second daughter Aya was born. The long novel Ten Utsu Nami he was serializing around this time was left unfinished. Aya would later become a writer with essays recalling her father.
He was invited to Kyoto Imperial University and taught Japanese literature as a lecturer. Being invited without a university degree showed the depth of his learning, but he resigned after about a year and returned to Tokyo.
He received the degree of Doctor of Letters. From around this time he devoted himself less to fiction than to historical biographies, scholarly research and essays.
He published Unmei (Fate), a historical narrative of a struggle for the throne in Ming China, highly praised for its dignified prose. Later he also spent many years writing commentaries on the haikai of Matsuo Bashō.
He received the first Order of Culture. Having stayed at the forefront of literature from Meiji to Shōwa, Rohan was revered as a grand figure of the literary world.
Having been evacuated at the end of the Pacific War, he died at his home in Ichikawa, Chiba. His daughter Kōda Aya recorded his last days in essays such as Shūen.
Matsuo BashōTsubouchi ShōyōSaitō MokichiOzaki Kōyō
Kuroda SeikiNatsume SōsekiMasaoka ShikiToyoda SakichiOzaki KōyōYokoyama TaikanAkiyama SaneyukiKitamura Tokoku
People of the Meiji period ・ People by period
Based on facts found in textbooks and biographies. Uncertain points are marked as such.