Hyakuzō Kurata

was a Japanese essayist and playwright who wrote on religious subjects. He was active during the Taishō and early Shōwa periods of Japan.

Biography Kurata was born in what is now rural Shōbara city, Hiroshima Prefecture, to a wealthy merchant family. He graduated from the No.1 High School in Tokyo and lived in a cottage on the banks of Ueno Pond. Highly influenced by the writings of Nishida Kitarō and his concepts of religious syncretism, he traveled to Kyoto to meet the philosopher in 1912.

However, Kurata had a falling out with the Shirakaba group in 1922, after Mushanokōji joined critics in lambasting his most recent play Chichi no Shimpai ("A Father's Worry", 1921), and the Atarashiki-mura faced bankruptcy. His private life also attracted unfavorable press, as he was living polygamously with three women under the same roof. Politically, Kurata made a sharp turn to the religious right and embraced the concepts of fascism, advocating a theocracy based on the teachings of Shinran.

Kurata died in 1943 at his home in Magome, Tokyo, and his grave is in Tama Cemetery, at Fuchū, Tokyo.