IZUMI KYOKA

born Nov. 4, 1873, Kanazawa, Japan died Sept. 7, 1939, Tokyo pseudonym of Izumi Kyotaro prolific Japanese short-story writer who created his own romantic, often mystical world and peopled it with characters representing his ideal moral values. Kyoka was born into a family of provincial artists and artisans, from whom he inherited artistic skill and a deep faith that shaded into an actual belief in mysterious forces. He went to Tokyo in 1890, hoping to be accepted as a disciple of the then leader of the literary scene, Ozaki Koyo. A year later he was taken in, and he lived with Koyo's other pupils until 1894. Yako junsa (1895; Police Night Patrol) and Gekashitsu (1895; Surgical Room) present Kyoka's ideal values in the classic struggle between duty and human emotions. Koya hijiri (1900; The Itinerant Monk) is representative of his fascination with strange and mysterious situations. In 1899 Kyoka met a geisha, whom he later married; his stories such as Onna keizu (1907; The Genealogy of Women), Uta andon (1910; The Song Lantern), Shirasagi (1909; Snowy Heron), and Sannin Mekura Hanashi (1912; A Tale of Three Who Were Blind) are idealized images of the geisha world. At one time a very popular author, Kyoka remained aloof from contemporary changes in literary taste, choosing to go into eclipse with a small group of devoted followers rather than compromise his highly individualistic art.