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.

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.