Tokuda Shusei

Novelist. Real name Sueo. Born on December 23, 1872 (February 1, 1872) in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture. His father, Unpei, was a retainer of the Yokoyama clan, a chief retainer of the Kaga domain, and his mother, Take, was his fourth wife. Akisei had four half-siblings and one sister by the same mother. He was sickly from an early age and was one year late in entering elementary school. In 1886 (Meiji 19), he entered Ishikawa Prefectural College, but in 1888, the school was reformed to become the Fourth Higher Middle School. Akisei passed the supplementary course, but Izumi Kyoka, who took the exam at the same time, failed. He dropped out in 1891 due to his father's death from illness. He deepened his friendship with his elementary school classmate Kiryu Yuyu and others, and his interest in literature grew, so in 1892 he moved to Tokyo with Yuyu. He went to see Ozaki Koyo, but was turned down by Kyoka, who was working as a keeper at the front door, and was unable to meet him. He also met Tsubouchi Shoyo, but was unable to achieve his goal, so he went to Shimosaka, relying on his brother in Osaka, and published his works in the Osaka Shinpo and Ashiwakebune newspapers. He returned home the following year, and from this time on used the pen name Akisei. In 1894, he was posted as a reporter for the Byodo Shimbun newspaper in Nagaoka, Niigata Prefecture, and the following year he moved to Tokyo and joined Hakubunkan. Kyoka invited him to become a student of Koyo. In 1896, he published Yabu Kauji in Bungei Club, which became his literary debut. That same year, he left Hakubunkan, and from then on, apart from working for the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper from 1899 to 1901 (Meiji 34), he supported himself solely by writing for the rest of his life. As a result, he was forced to mass-produce popular works, and he produced many of these throughout his life. For this reason, although he attracted the attention of the literary world with his early excellent works such as "Lazy Man" (1899) and "Clouds Go Where" (1900), he was unable to produce a decisive masterpiece.

In 1902, Ozawa Hama moved in with him and became his wife. After his teacher Koyo's death the following year, Shusei's style began to be recognized as the naturalistic tendency gradually strengthened in the literary world. In 1908, his collection of short stories "Shusei-shu" and his novella "Arajyo-tai" (serialized in the Kokumin Shimbun) were both well received, and Shusei's status as a naturalistic writer was all but established. "Ashiato" (Footprints) (1910) was not well received while serialized in the newspaper, but was re-evaluated the following year with the success of "Kabi" (Mold), and Katai Tayama highly praised it as demonstrating the pinnacle of two-dimensional depiction. These two works became decisive works for both naturalism and Shusei. Ikuta Choko described Shusei as "a born naturalist." With this style of writing, Shusei reached a dead end as naturalism declined, and he retired from the front line in the latter half of the Taisho period, with "Tadare" (1913) and "Arakure" (1915) being his peaks, and the celebration of the 50th anniversary of Hanagata Shusei's birth in 1920 (Taisho 9) seemed to herald the departure of the two great figures of naturalism from the literary world. However, his negotiations with Yamada Junko, an aspiring writer who appeared around Shusei around the time of his wife Hama's sudden death in 1926, rekindled his creative desire, paving the way for his culmination of short stories such as "To the Branch of the Past" (1926) into "Masked Person" (1935-38), and his negotiations with Kobayashi Masako, a geisha he met in 1931 (Showa 6), led to the creation of "Shukuzu" (1941), two masterpieces from his later years. In 1937, he became a member of the Japan Art Academy. He died of pleural cancer on November 18, 1943. His Hongo residence is designated as a Tokyo historic site. His manuscripts and other works are stored at the Ishikawa Modern Literature Museum.

[Kingo Wada]

"The Complete Works of Shusei, 18 volumes (1974-75, Rinkawa Shoten)" ▽ "The Life of Tokuda Shusei, by Noguchi Fujio (1965, Chikuma Shobo)" ▽ "The Collected Works of Yoshida Seiichi, Volume 8, Hanagai and Shusei (1980, Ohfusha)"

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

小説家。本名末雄。明治4年12月23日（西暦1872年2月1日）石川県金沢市に生まれる。父、雲平は加賀藩家老横山家の家臣、母タケはその4番目の妻で、秋声には異母兄姉が4人、同腹の姉が1人あった。幼時から病弱で小学校入学も1年遅れた。1886年（明治19）石川県専門学校に入学、1888年、学制改革により同校が第四高等中学となり、秋声はその補充科に合格したが、同時に受験した泉鏡花(きょうか)は不合格だった。父の病没により1891年退学。小学時代の同級生桐生悠々(きりゅうゆうゆう)らとの交友深まり、文学への関心高まり、1892年悠々とともに上京。尾崎紅葉(こうよう)に会いに行ったが、玄関番をしていた鏡花に断られて会えず、坪内逍遙(しょうよう)には会えたが意を達せず、大阪の兄を頼って下阪、『大阪新報』『葦分船(あしわけぶね)』などに作品を発表した。翌年帰郷、このころより「秋声」の筆名を用いた。1894年新潟県長岡の『平等新聞』記者として赴任、翌年上京して博文館に入社。鏡花の誘いで紅葉門下となった。1896年『文芸倶楽部(くらぶ)』に『藪(やぶ)かうじ』を発表、文壇的処女作となった。その年、博文館退社、以後1899年から1901年（明治34）まで読売新聞社に勤めたほかは、生涯文筆だけで生計を支えた。したがって通俗物をも量産する必要に迫られ、生涯にわたってその種の作品が多産されている。そのため、初期に『惰(なま)けもの』（1899）、『雲のゆくへ』（1900）などの佳作で文壇の注目を集めながら決定的な力作が出なかった。

　1902年、小沢はま同居、妻となる。翌年師紅葉の没後、しだいに自然主義的傾向が文壇に強まるにつれて秋声の作風が認められるようになり、1908年、短編集『秋声集』と中編『新世帯(あらじょたい)』（『国民新聞』連載）とが同時に好評を得て、秋声の自然主義作家としての地位はほぼ定まった。『足迹(あしあと)』（1910）は新聞連載中は評価を得られなかったが、翌年『黴(かび)』の成功によって再評価され、田山花袋(かたい)は平面描写の極致を示すものとして激賞した。この2作は自然主義にとっても秋声にとっても決定的な作となった。生田長江(いくたちょうこう)は秋声を「生れたる自然派」と評した。そのような作風の秋声は、自然主義の退潮とともに行き詰まることになり、『爛(ただれ)』（1913）、『あらくれ』（1915）あたりを峠として、大正後半期には第一線を退いた形となり、1920年（大正9）の花袋秋声生誕50年祝賀会は、自然主義の両雄の文壇退場を告げるかのごとき観を呈した。しかし、1926年妻はまの急死に前後して秋声の身辺に登場した作家志望の山田順子との交渉は、秋声の創作意欲を再燃させ、『元の枝へ』（1926）などの短編から『仮装人物』（1935～38）に集大成する道を開き、また1931年（昭和6）に知り合った芸者小林政子との交渉から『縮図』（1941）を生み、晩年の2傑作となった。1937年芸術院会員。昭和18年11月18日肋膜癌(ろくまくがん)のため没。本郷の住居は東京都史跡に指定。石川近代文学館に原稿などを収蔵する。

［和田謹吾］

『『秋声全集』全18巻（1974～75・臨川書店）』▽『野口冨士男著『徳田秋声伝』（1965・筑摩書房）』▽『『吉田精一著作集8　花袋・秋声』（1980・桜楓社）』

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