Hakuchō Masamune

, born Tadao Masamune, was a noted Japanese critic and writer of fiction, and a leading member of the Japanese Naturalist school of literature.

Biography Masamune was born in Bizen, Okayama Prefecture, as the eldest (and sickly) son of an old and influential family of landowners. In 1896 he joined the English department of the Tokyo Senmon Gakko (now Waseda University), and was baptized as a Christian by priest Uemura Masahisa the following year.

Masamune wrote in a variety of genres; major works include the stories Ushibeya no nioi ("The Stench of the Stable") and Shisha seisha ("The Dead and the Living"), both 1916, the play Jinsei no kōfuku ("The Happiness of Human Life"), 1924, and the 1932 criticism collection Bundan jimbutsu hyōron ("Critical Essays on Literary Figures"),

Masamune received the Order of Culture in 1950, and the Yomiuri Prize for Literature in 1960 for Kotoshi no aki. His birthplace has been turned into a museum. Of Masamune's younger brothers, Atsuo is known as a poet and scholar, Genkei as a botanist, and Tokusaburo as a painter.

Selected works

1904: Sekibaku 1908: Doko-e 1911: The Clay Doll 1916: Ushibeya no nioi 1916: Shisha seisha 1924: Jinsei no kōfuku 1925: The Couple Next Door 1932: Bundan jimbutsu hyōron 1938: Shisō mushisō 1938: Bundanteki jijoden 1941–42: Sakka ron 1947: Tenshi hokaku 1948: Shizenshugi seisuishi 1949: Uchimura Kanzō 1949: Nippon dasshutsu 1959: Kotoshi no aki

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