Hidejirō Nagata (永田秀次郎, Nagata Hidejirō; 23 July 1876 – 17 September 1943), was a politician and cabinet minister in…Hidejirō Nagata (永田秀次郎, Nagata Hidejirō; 23 July 1876 – 17 September 1943), was a politician and cabinet minister in the Empire of Japan, serving as a member of the House of Peers of the Diet of Japan, twice as a cabinet minister, and also serving twice as mayor of Tokyo.
Usui Kojima (小島 烏水, Kojima Usui; December 29, 1873 – December 13, 1948) was a Japanese author from Yokohama, Japan who…Usui Kojima (小島 烏水, Kojima Usui; December 29, 1873 – December 13, 1948) was a Japanese author from Yokohama, Japan who authored over 20 books. He was also known for amassing a collection of over 900 ukiyo-e prints and establishing Japan's first mountaineering society.
Kawahigashi Hekigotō (河東 碧梧桐; February 26, 1873 – February 1, 1937), birth name Kawahigashi Heigorō (河東 秉五郎), was a…Kawahigashi Hekigotō (河東 碧梧桐; February 26, 1873 – February 1, 1937), birth name Kawahigashi Heigorō (河東 秉五郎), was a Japanese poet and modern pioneer of the haiku form.
Yoshio Markino (牧野 義雄, Makino Yoshio; 25 December 1869 – 18 October 1956) was a Japanese artist and author who from…Yoshio Markino (牧野 義雄, Makino Yoshio; 25 December 1869 – 18 October 1956) was a Japanese artist and author who from 1897 – 1942 was based in London. During the Edwardian years of 1903 – 1915 he was the most well known Japanese person living in London, and was widely praised for bridging the Japanese and Western artistic aesthetic in his artwork, particularly in his depiction of London's fog, gaslights and wet streets, which became his hallmark. Like his contemporaries Whistler and Monet, he viewed the London fog from an outsider's point of view and marvelled at the effect it had on light, both natural and artificial. Markino became known affectionately as Heiji of London Fog, and wrote: 'I think London without mists would be like a bride without a trousseau'. His autobiography A Japanese Artist in London, published in 1910 and written in an eccentric style, described his years of extreme poverty in London while trying to establish himself as an illustrator and artist. From his early years he was fascinated by Western culture and remained a committed Anglophile all his life.
Patrick Lafcadio Hearn (27 June 1850 – 26 September 1904) was a Greek and Irish writer, translator, and teacher whose…Patrick Lafcadio Hearn (27 June 1850 – 26 September 1904) was a Greek and Irish writer, translator, and teacher whose work played a significant role in the introduction of the culture and literature of Japan to the mainstream Western world. His writings offered unprecedented insight into Japanese culture, especially his collections of legends and ghost stories, such as Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things. Before moving to Japan and becoming a Japanese citizen, he worked as a journalist in the United States, primarily in Cincinnati and New Orleans. His writings about New Orleans, based on his decade-long stay there, are also well-known. Hearn was born on the Greek island of Lefkada but moved to Dublin, where he was abandoned first by his mother, then his father, and finally by his father's aunt (who had been appointed his official guardian). At the age of 19, he immigrated to the United States, where he found work as a newspaper reporter, first in Cincinnati and later in New Orleans. From there, he was sent as a correspondent to Martinique in the French West Indies, where he stayed for two years, and then in 1890 to Japan, where he would remain for the rest of his life, assuming the name Yakumo Koizumi. In Japan, Hearn married Setsuko Koizumi, with whom he had four children. His writings about Japan offered the Western world an introduction to Japanese culture.
Yoshiharu Tsuge (つげ義春, Tsuge Yoshiharu; 30 October 1937 – 3 March 2026) was a Japanese cartoonist and essayist. He was…Yoshiharu Tsuge (つげ義春, Tsuge Yoshiharu; 30 October 1937 – 3 March 2026) was a Japanese cartoonist and essayist. He was active in comics between 1955 and 1987. His works ranged from tales of ordinary life to dream-like surrealism, and often show his interest in traveling about Japan. Tsuge garnered the most attention from the surrealistic works he published in the late 1960s in the avant-garde magazine Garo. Tsuge began producing comics in 1955 for the rental comics industry that flourished in impoverished post-War Japan. Initially, he made comics in the hard-boiled gekiga style–dark, realistic tales with negative endings. When rental comics ceased to be viable employment in the mid-1960s, Tsuge was in dire straits until he was picked up by the publishers of the avant garde comics magazine Garo. From 1965 to 1970, he entered his most widely known phase when he produced often surrealistic and introspective works for Garo. The June 1968 issue saw the most famous of these: the dream-based Neji-shiki (most commonly rendered Screw Style in English). Following his success in Garo, Tsuge became withdrawn, and from the 1970s no longer had his works published in that magazine. His works became alternately autobiographical and erotically fantastic, until health and psychological problems drove him from comics after 1987. He has become a cult figure in Japan. In the West, his status is often compared to that of American cartoonist Robert Crumb. He has had a long-lasting influence, and his works have been adapted to film and television numerous times. His works have rarely been translated–in English, only five short works have appeared. From 1987, he stopped producing comics, and lived a quiet life with his son in Tokyo following his wife's death in 1999, occasionally cooperating with adaptations and reproductions of his past work.
Shion Miura (三浦 しをん, Miura Shion; born 1976) is a Japanese writer. She has won the Naoki Prize, the Oda Sakunosuke…Shion Miura (三浦 しをん, Miura Shion; born 1976) is a Japanese writer. She has won the Naoki Prize, the Oda Sakunosuke Prize, and the Japan Booksellers' Award. Her work has been adapted for film and television, and her books have been translated into Indonesian, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, English, German and Italian.