Occupation Writer and academic Education University of Tokyo Nationality Japan Movies Madadayo, Zigeunerweisen | Name Hyakken Uchida Books Realm of the dead Role Author | |
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Died April 20, 1971, Tokyo, Japan Similar People | ||
Hyakken Uchida (内田 百間, Uchida Hyakken, May 29, 1889 – April 20, 1971) was a Japanese author and academic.
Biography
He was born in Okayama, to a family of sake brewers whose business later went bankrupt. His real name is Eizo Uchida (内田 榮造 Uchida Eizō). He became a pupil of Natsume Sōseki in 1911. He graduated from Tokyo University (Tokyo Imperial University) in 1914. He became professor of German at Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1916. He later taught at Hosei University (Tokyo). He is the main subject of Akira Kurosawa's last film, Madadayo (まあだだよ). His novel, Disk of Sarasate (サラサーテの盤, Sarasāte no ban) is the inspiration for the film, Zigeunerweisen. He is the author of more than fifteen volumes of writings including I am a Cat: The Fake Version (贋作吾輩は猫である, Gansaku wagahai ha neko de aru), and Gates Close at Dusk (日没閉門, Nichibotsu heimon). In Japan he is well known as a passionate railfan and he made some works on railway travel. Though a great literary figure in Japan, he currently only has one book translated into English: Realm of the Dead (冥途 Meido). That volume also includes the collection Triumphal Entry into Ryojun (Ryojun Nyujōshiki (旅順入城式)). A translated excerpt from another collection, Hyakkien Zuihitsu (百鬼園随筆)[Jottings from the Goblins' Garden], appeared in the JAL inflight magazine Skyward, January 2006: "Small Round Things." He had two sons and three daughters.