Tamio Hojo

Novelist. Born in Keijo, Korea (now Seoul). He studied in various professions and became interested in left-wing ideology. In 1933 (Showa 8), he was diagnosed with Hansen's disease (formerly known as leprosy) and considered suicide, but the following year he was hospitalized at Zensho Hospital in Higashimurayama, Tokyo. During his battle with the disease, he devoted himself to literature, and his works were published in various magazines by his mentor, Kawabata Yasunari. In particular, his second work, Inochi no Shoya (First Night of Life) (1936), which followed Maki Rojin (1935), shocked the literary world by depicting the bizarre experiences he had at the beginning of his hospitalization. He published a series of novels and essays, including Leprosy Hospital Conception (1936), and continued to face death and his fate as a leprosy patient, until he suddenly died of intestinal tuberculosis at the age of 24 in 1937.

[Munakata Kazushige]

"The Complete Works of Tamio Hojo, 2 Volumes (1980, Tokyo Sogensha)"

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

小説家。朝鮮京城府（現ソウル）生まれ。種々の職業につきながら学び、左翼思想に近づく。1933年（昭和8）ハンセン病（旧称、癩(らい)）の発病にあい、自殺を考えるが、翌年東京東村山の全生病院に入院。闘病生活のなかで文学に情熱を傾け、以後彼の作品は、師と仰いでいた川端康成(やすなり)の手で諸雑誌に発表された。とくに『間木(まき)老人』（1935）に次ぐ第二作『いのちの初夜』（1936）が、入院当初の異様な体験を描いて文壇に強い衝撃を与えた。続いて『癩院受胎』（1936）などの小説や随筆を次々に発表、絶えず死と向き合いながら、ハンセン病患者としての自己の宿命を直視し続けたが、37年腸結核により24歳で急逝。

［宗像和重］

『『定本　北条民雄全集』全2巻（1980・東京創元社）』

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