Chogyu Takayama

Takayama Chogyū (高山 樗牛; Saitō Rinjirō (斎藤 林次郎) 28 February 1871 – 24 December 1902) was a Japanese writer and literary critic. He influenced Japanese literature in the late Meiji period with his blend of romantic individualism, concepts of self-realization, aesthetics, and nationalism. However, many of Chogyū's works seem cryptic to readers today, due to the archaic style he employed.

Early life

Chogyū was born in what is now the city of Tsuruoka in Yamagata Prefecture. His father was a minor samurai of the Shōnai Domain, who found employment with the police after the Meiji Restoration. At the age of two he was adopted by his aunt's family.

In 1887 he entered high school in Sendai, where he excelled in English and English literature. While studying philosophy at Tokyo Imperial University, he was influenced by Thomas Hill Green's concepts of self-realization and nationalism.

Career and life

Chogyū entered and won a fiction contest sponsored by Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper for his semi-historical romance, Takiguchi Nyūdō. It was his first, and only, novel. While still a student, he co-founded the literary journal Teikoku Bungaku (Imperial Literature) and submitted articles to the literary magazine, Taiyō (Sun), of which he later became senior editor. He also changed his official residence to Hokkaidō to avoid military conscription.

In 1896, Chogyū returned to Sendai to teach English and logic at a prestigious high school. A student revolt the following year forced him give up teaching to edit a literary magazine, and he returned to Tokyo. It was at this time that he married Satō Sugi.