Kanagaki Robun

• Born: 1829
• Died: 1894/11
• Other Names: 野崎文蔵 (Nozaki Bunzô), 鈍亭 (Dontei)
• Japanese: 仮名垣魯文 (Kanagaki Robun)

Kanagaki Robun was a journalist and fiction writer of the Bakumatsu and early Meiji periods.

He was born near Kyôbashi in Edo in 1829. He engaged for many years in commercial business, but also produced numerous works of fiction. His first major work was Kokkei Fuji môde, published in 1860. In the Meiji period, he turned to writing works incorporating, or satirizing, aspects of Westernization; among his early Meiji works were Seiyô dôchû hizakurige (a "Western" version of Jippensha Ikku's Tôkaidô dôchû hizakurige) and Agura nabe ("Sitting Crosslegged Pot").

With the rise of newspapers, Kanagaki began writing for papers including the Yokohama Mainichi Shinbun, Kana-yomi Shinbun.

His fame or popularity as an author began in earnest in 1879 with the publication of his Takahashi oden yasha monogatari.

Kanagaki died in November 1894, at the age of 66, and was buried at Eikyû-ji in the Yanaka neighborhood of Tokyo.

References

• Plaque at grave of Kanagaki Robun, Eikyû-ji, Yanaka, Tokyo.[1]