Name Kanzo Uchiyama | Died 1959, Beijing, China | |
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Kanzō Uchiyama (内山 完造, Uchiyama Kanzō) was a Japanese Christian, and proprietor of the Uchiyama Bookstore, whose frequent visitors were both Chinese and Japanese intellectuals before World War II.
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Early life
Kanzo Uchiyama was born in 1885, in the village of Yoshii in Shitsuki District, Okayama. At the age of 12, he was sent out for his apprenticeship to Osaka. He worked for 10 years for a merchant family in Kyoto. At the age of 27, Uchiyama became a Christian.
Shanghai and the Uchiyama Bookstore
At age 28, Kanzo moved to Shanghai, along with his wife Miki, as the overseas representative of Daigaku Megusuri Santendo (a pharmaceutical company). He established his bookstore in 1917 on North Sichuan Road. He changed the location of the bookstore to the International Settlement in Hongkou.
His store was frequented by Chinese and Japanese intellectuals, such as Lu Xun, Guo Moruo, Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, Sato Haruo and Hayashi Fumiko. Tian Han, and Chen Duxiu.
By 1932, Uchiyama had become the sole publisher of Lu Xun's works.
Later years
His wife, Miki, died in 1945. The bookstore was closed down the same year. Uchiyama returned to Japan in 1945. After the war, he became the first head of the Japan-China Friendship Association.
Kanzo is buried in the Wanguo Cemetery.