Kamura Isota

Novelist. Born in Yamaguchi Prefecture on December 15, 1897. Dropped out of middle school. While helping with the family farming business, he studied lecture notes. From that time on, he began to worry about life's problems and sought salvation in religion, becoming devoted to the teachings of the Buddhist monk Chikazumi Jokan. In 1918 (Taisho 7), he married Fujimoto Shizuko and had one child, but in 1925, he eloped to Tokyo with Ogawa Chitose, a sewing assistant at Nakamura Girls' School in Yamaguchi City, and divorced Shizuko the following year. In the same year, he became a reporter for the magazine Fudouchou, and in 1928 (Showa 3), he published "Gouku" and "Gake no Shita" in the same magazine, confessing his feelings of remorse for his elopement, attracting attention from the literary world, but it was not until he published "Tojo" in Chuokoron in 1932 that he was able to establish himself as a writer. He died of tuberculous peritonitis on November 30, 1933, the following year. Heavily influenced by Chikazumi Jōkan, Tokutomi Roka, whose works he read and enjoyed in his youth, and Kasai Zenzō, whom he became acquainted with during his time with Fudouchō, most of Kaamura's works are autobiographical novels with a harsh confessional attitude.

[Omori Sumio]

"The Complete Works of Isota Kamura, 2 volumes (1972, Ohfusha)" ▽ "Isota Kamura: His Life and Literature" by Seiichi Ohta (1971, Yayoi Shobo)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

小説家。明治30年12月15日、山口県に生まれる。中学中退。家業の農業を手伝うかたわら、講義録で勉強。そのころから人生問題で悩み宗教に救いを求めて、念仏行者近角常観(ちかずみじょうかん)の教えに傾倒。1918年（大正7）藤本静子と結婚し一子をもうけたが、25年山口市の私立中村女学校の裁縫助手小川チトセと東京へ駆け落ちし、翌年静子と離婚した。同年雑誌『不同調』の記者となり、28年（昭和3）同誌に、駆け落ちに絡む自責の念を告白した『業苦(ごうく)』『崖(がけ)の下』を発表して文壇に注目されたが、作家としての地位を確立できたのは、32年『中央公論』に『途上』を発表してからである。翌昭和8年11月30日、結核性腹膜炎のために死亡。近角常観や、若いころに読み親しんだ徳冨蘆花(とくとみろか)、『不同調』時代に知遇を得た葛西善蔵(かさいぜんぞう)らの影響を強く受けている嘉村の作品は、ほとんどが告白態度の厳しい私小説である。

［大森澄雄］

『『嘉村礒多全集』全2巻（1972・桜楓社）』▽『太田静一著『嘉村礒多　その生涯と文学』（1971・弥生書房）』

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