Shūsei Tokuda
# Shūsei Tokuda

Shūsei Tokuda (徳田秋声, Tokuda Shūsei, 1 February 1872 – 18 November 1943, real name Sueo Tokuda) was a Japanese writer.

## Life

Tokuda was born in Kanazawa in Ishikawa Prefecture. Coming from a family of the former feudal nobility, Tokuda began his literary life as a follower of the writer Ozaki Kōyō, who was four years his senior and had already established himself as a literary man in the late 1880s. Their relationship wasn't to last long, though, with Kōyō dying in 1903, after which Tokuda began to move from Kōyō's style of romanticism into a mixture of naturalism and the confessional known as "Shizen-shugi", an example of which is his 1908 novel Arajotai (新世帯), which dealt with the frustrations of a young working-class couple.

After the publication of Ashiato (足迹) in 1910, Tokuda would release his most autobiographical work, Kabi (黴), in 1911, a classic example of the Japanese genre known as the "I-novel". He followed with the novel Rough Living (Arakure, あらくれ) in 1915.

After the death of his wife in 1926, Tokuda began a series of relationships with younger women, which would inspire his later works, especially his best-known, Kasō jinbutsu (仮装人物), released from 1935 to 1938, as well as the unfinished Shukuzu (縮図) from 1941.

## Legacy

A number of Tokuda's works were adapted into films in Japan. A monument honoring Tokuda was erected near the summit of Mount Utatsu in 1947. The monument features writing authored by poet Murō Saisei and was designed by architect Yoshirō Taniguchi.

## Selected works

* 1910: Ashiato
* 1911: Kabi
* 1915: Rough Living (Arakure)
* 1933: The Town's Dance Hall (Machi no odoriba)
* 1935: Order of the White Paulownia (Kunshō)
* 1935–1938: Kasō jinbutsu
* 1941: Shukuzu (unfinished)
