Hirotsu Ryurō
| Hirotsu Ryūrō | |
|---|---|
| Born |
15 July 1861 Nagasaki, Japan |
| Died | 25 October 1928 (aged 67) Tokyo Japan (?) |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Genre | novels |
| Literary movement | Tragic Novel |
Hirotsu Ryūrō (広津 柳浪?, 15 July 1861 - 25 October 1928) was the pen-name of a novelist in Meiji period Japan. He is credited with the creation of the tragic novel (悲惨小説 hisan shōsetsu?) genre in Japanese literature. His real name was Hirotsu Naoto.
Ryūrō was born in Nagasaki, Buzen province (present-day Nagasaki prefecture), to a samurai-class family originally from Kurume domain. His father had been trained as a doctor, and was in Nagasaki studying western medicine at the time of the Meiji Restoration. Under the new Meiji government, he became a diplomat, and was involved in the Seikanron issue between Japan and Korea.
Ryūrō was sent to Tokyo in 1874 to study the German language, and subsequently enrolled in the medical preparatory school of Tokyo Imperial University, but left without graduating in 1877. The following year, at the invitation of his father's friend Godai Tomoatsu, he moved to Osaka, and obtained a position as a bureaucrat in the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce from 1881-1885. Around this time, he read the Chinese literature classic Outlaws of the Marsh and the Japanese fantasy novel Nansō Satomi Hakkenden by Kyokutei Bakin. These works, combined with the death of his father, formed a turning point in his life, and he decided to abandon his secure career in the government for life as a writer.
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