Hyakken Uchida
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
|
| Born: | May 29, 1889 Okayama, Okayama, Japan |
|---|---|
| Died: | April 20, 1971 Tokyo, Japan |
| Occupation: | Writer and academic |
| Nationality: | Japan |
Hyakken Uchida (内田 百間 Uchida Hyakken?, May 29, 1889—April 20, 1971) was a Japanese author and academic. He was born in Okayama, to a family of sake brewers whose business later went bankrupt. His real name is Eizo Uchida (内田 栄造 Uchida Eizo). He became a pupil of Natsume Soseki in 1911. He graduated from Tokyo University (Tokyo Imperial University) in 1914. He became professor of German at Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1916. He is the main subject of Akira Kurosawa's last film, Madadayo. His novel, Disk of Sarasate (サラサーテの盤 Sarasāte no ban) is the the inspiration for the film, Zigeunerweisen. He is the author of more than fifteen volumes of writings including I am a Cat: The Fake Version, and Gates Close at Dusk. In Japan he is well known as a passionate railfan and he made some works on railway travel. A great literary figure in Japan, he has but one book translated into English: Realm of the Dead, a collection of short stories whose namesake is perhaps his most well known. A translated excerpt from another collecion, Hyakkien Zuihitsu [Jottings from the Goblins' Garden], appeared in the JAL inflight magazine Skyward, January, 2006: "Small Round Things." He had two sons and three daughters.
