Yoshida Kenichi

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Yoshida Kenichi (吉田健一) (1912-1977) was a Japanese author and literary critic.

He was born in Tokyo in 1912, the son of Japanese Prime Minister Yoshida Shigeru. He spent his childhood abroad, accompanying his father to postings in China, France, and the United Kingdom. He studied English literature at Cambridge University, but returned to Japan after one year. He debuted as a writer in 1935 with a translation of Edgar Allan Poe's Memorandum (Oboegaki). In 1939, with Nakamura Mitsuo and Yamamoto Kenkichi, he co-founded the literary magazine Hihyo, which published critiques of modern French and British authors. From the late 1940s, Yoshida has a prolific output, with works ranging from Shakespeare and English literature to fictional, with short stories and novels, including some lighter works such as Saisho Onzoshi Hinkyusu (宰相御曹司貧窮す, Prime Minister’s Son Falls on Hard Times). The work Saisho Onzoshi Hinkyusu was titled by publisher, also he didn't agree with. So he published private edition of that work with its title changed into Detarameron.

Yoshida lived in Kamakura between 1946 and 1953. He died in 1977 at the age of 65. Due to his upbringing in Europe, he is said to have thought in English rather than in Japanese. It is said that when he got drunk he would lash out in French and English.