Born in Sonezaki, Osaka. His mother is said to have come from Yamato, but his father is unknown (accounts vary). While still small he was adopted by Ueda Mosuke of the Shimaya, an Osaka merchant house dealing in paper and oil.
As a small child he caught a severe case of smallpox and nearly died. It is said his life was saved after his adoptive father prayed at the Kashima Inari shrine. The illness left his fingers crippled, but Akinari revered that shrine all his life.
Around this time the young Akinari spent his days in pleasure while enjoying haikai, composing verse under the name Gyoen. Steeped in townspeople's culture, he grew ever more interested in words and stories.
He married Tama, a woman from a farming family near Kyoto. The next year his adoptive father died and he took over the Shimaya business, though he was not much of a merchant, it is said.
He published the ukiyo-zōshi Shodō Kikimimi Sekenzaru, followed the next year by Seken Tekake Katagi, humorous portraits of the characters and lives of ordinary people. Around this time he became a pupil of Katō Umaki, a disciple of Kamo no Mabuchi, and began studying kokugaku.
He completed Tales of Moonlight and Rain, nine uncanny stories based on Chinese ghost tales and Japanese classics, and wrote its preface. In beautiful prose it portrays the obsessions and sorrows of the human heart (it was published eight years later).
A fire destroyed his house and all his property. He gave up trade and chose to study medicine and become a doctor. He is believed to have learned from Tsuga Teishō, a doctor and writer who pioneered the yomihon.
He opened a medical practice in Osaka, and the same year Tales of Moonlight and Rain was published. It became a masterpiece of the new genre called yomihon and greatly influenced later writers such as Kyokutei Bakin.
Around this time he engaged in a fierce debate with Motoori Norinaga over ancient pronunciation and how to read the legend of the sun goddess. Against Norinaga's literal faith in the classics, Akinari argued that Japan must be seen coolly as one country in the wider world. Norinaga compiled the exchange as Kakaika.
He gave up medicine, moved to the outskirts of Osaka and devoted himself to kokugaku and waka. He loved sencha green tea and also left a book about it.
He moved to Kyoto. In 1797 he lost his wife, and his own eyesight failed; his last years were lonely and hard, but he never stopped writing.
He wrote Tales of the Spring Rain, a collection of stories filled with the thoughts of his old age, and Tandai Shōshinroku, an essay in which he set down his views freely. Both are works of deep flavor that look hard at history and how people live.
He died in Kyoto. Tales of Moonlight and Rain is regarded as the finest tale of the supernatural of the Edo period, and it is still read today and adapted for stage, film and manga.
Kamo no MabuchiKyokutei BakinMotoori Norinaga
Hiraga GennaiMotoori NorinagaSugita GenpakuMaruyama ŌkyoHayashi ShiheiInō TadatakaHanawa HokiichiShiba Kokan
People of the Edo period ・ People by period
Based on facts found in textbooks and biographies. Uncertain points are marked as such.