Mantarō Kubota
| Mantarō Kubota | |
|---|---|
Kubota Mantarō
|
|
| Born |
11 November 1889 Tokyo, Japan |
| Died | 6 May 1963 (aged 73) Tokyo, Japan |
| Occupation | Writer, playwright and poet |
| Genre | novels, stage plays, haiku |
Mantarō Kubota (久保田 万太郎 Kubota Mantarō?, 11 November 1889 – 6 May 1963) was a Japanese author, playwright, and poet.
Kubota was born in the Asakusa district of Tokyo, to a clothing merchant family. He became interested in stage plays at an early age, largely through the influence of his grandmother, who also provided financial support for him to attend college. While attending college preparatory courses, he attended lectures by Mori Ogai and Nagai Kafu. While still a student at Keio University in 1911, he made his literary debut with the short novel Asagao ("Morning Glory", 朝顔) and a stage play Yugi ("Game", 遊戯), both of which appeared in the university's journal Mita Bungaku, and which led to a long-lasting friendship and association with Takitarō Minakami. In October 1912, he joined the literary coterie of Hototogisu, and was introduced to Izumi Kyoka.
Starting from 1919, Kubota taught courses in literature at Keio University, writing stage plays in the Shinpa genre, and novels which were serialized in the Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shimbun or the Osaka Asahi Shimbun.
Kubota went on to write many full-length novels, including Tsuyushiba ("Dew on the Grass"), and Shundei ("Spring Thaw"), which depicted the joys and sorrows and traditional lifestyle of ordinary people in working-class neighborhoods in old pre-war Tokyo.
In the Great Kantō earthquake of 1923, his home in the Nippori neighborhood of Tokyo burned down, and he relocated to nearby Tabuchi, where he made the acquaintance of Ryūnosuke Akutagawa.
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