Mayama Seika
- Born: 1878/9/1
- Died: 1948/3/25
- Other Names: 真山彬 (Mayama Akira)
- Japanese: 真山青果 (Mayama Seika)
Mayama Seika was a prominent novelist and playwright of the Meiji through early Shôwa periods. He is perhaps most famous for his novel Minami Koizumi-mura, and the kabuki play Genroku Chûshingura, which is still performed quite regularly today.
Born Mayama Akira in Miyagi prefecture, he dropped out of medical school as a youth to study under writer Oguri Fûyô. After his now-acclaimed novel Minami Koizumi-mura was published in 1907, he was expected to quickly become a rising star in the new "naturalist" literary movement, but, after an incident in 1911 where his manuscript was double-sold, he became estranged from the literary world. Minami Koizumi mura is acclaimed as a representative novel of the naturalist school; it focuses on the travails of poor farmers in Tôhoku, struggling under the crop failures and other economic and social difficulties experienced by many in rural areas of Meiji Japan.[1]
Mayama began working for Shôchiku in 1913, and became a shinpa (new-style theatre) playwright, producing such works as Genboku and Chôei, Genroku Chûshingura, and Taira no Masakado.
He passed away on March 25, 1948.
References
- "Mayama Seika," Digital-ban Nihon jinmei daijiten デジタル版 日本人名大辞典, Kodansha, 2009.
- ↑ Irokawa Daikiki, "Meiji Conditions of Nonculture," The Culture of the Meiji Period, Princeton University Press (1985), 223.
