Kanbara Ariake

Kambara Ariake (蒲原有明, Kambara Ariake) (15 March 1876 – 3 February 1952) was the pen-name of a Japanese poet and novelist active in Taishō and Showa period Japan. Ariake was born in Tokyo. His father, an ex-samurai from Higo province, was a close associate of Eto Shimpei and active in the Meiji Restoration. He moved to Tokyo together with Oki Takato and his mistress, leaving his wife back in Higo. Ariake's real name was Kambara Hayao. He was so si... more

Kambara Ariake (蒲原有明, Kambara Ariake) (15 March 1876 – 3 February 1952) was the pen-name of a Japanese poet and novelist active in Taishō and Showa period Japan. Ariake was born in Tokyo. His father, an ex-samurai from Higo province, was a close associate of Eto Shimpei and active in the Meiji Restoration. He moved to Tokyo together with Oki Takato and his mistress, leaving his wife back in Higo. Ariake's real name was Kambara Hayao. He was so sickly as an infant that his parents waited for a full year to officially register his name with the local government. While still at middle school, he developed an interest in the works of Byron and Heine, and began writing poetry in a similar style. In 1894, he started a literary journal called Ochibo Zoshi ("Gleaners’Notes") together with Hayashida Shuncho and Yamagishi Kayo, in which he serialized his first novel, Autumn Mountain Village (秋の山ざと, Aki no Yamazato). He escaped military conscription during the First Sino-Japanese War as he... less