Masuji Ibuse

Masuji Ibuse (井伏 鱒二, Ibuse Masuji^?, 15 February 1898 – 10 July 1993) was a Japanese author.

Ibuse was born in 1898 to a landowning family in the village of Kamo which is now part of Fukuyama, Hiroshima.

At the age of 19 he started studying at Waseda University in Tokyo. He was at first interested in studying poetry and painting but was encouraged to study fiction and ended up specialising in French literature.

He was harassed sexually by a gay professor named Noburu Katagami, so he had to leave the university before graduation, but began publishing stories in the early 1920s.

He began to be recognised in the late 1920s when his work was favorably mentioned by some of Japan's top critics. He appeared on the literary scene with the publication of Salamander in 1929, and thereafter continued to write in a style characterized by a unique blend of humour and bitterness.

He was awarded the Naoki Prize for John Manjirou, the Cast-Away; his Life and Adventure and continued to publish works filled with warmth and kindliness, while at the same time showing his keen power of observation. The themes he employed were usually intellectual fantasies that used animal allegories, historical fiction, and the country life. During World War II he worked for the government as a propaganda writer.

Ibuse failed his entrance exam to Hiroshima middle school but in 1911 he gained admission to Fukuyama Middle School. Fukuyama Middle School was an elite academy and was linked to eminent scholars. Fukuyama's teachers boasted the school's pedigree but Ibuse did not care much for this. Ibuse speaks of this school as following Western ideals, according to The First Half of My Life he says the school emphasized Dutch learning and French military exercises.

Ibuse was made fun of at this school; he even went so far as to avoid wearing glasses in an effort to avoid being ridiculed.

Although Ibuse enjoyed the Western influences of his education, his grandfather arranged for a private tutorial in Chinese literature, however, this training came to a stop when Ibuse's tutor died. At his school, Ibuse had to often deal with rules that forbade students to read fictional literature; this prevented Ibuse from reading popular works during this period. However Ibuse managed to read works from Shimazaki Toson and Mori Ogai. In 1916, Ibuse even wrote a letter to Ogai with the pseudonym Kuchiki Sansuke. Ogai believed Sansuke was a famous scholar and sent a reply to Sansuke expressing his gratitude. While in middle school, Ibuse's brother Fumio submitted a poem to the Tokyo journal Shusai bundan using Ibuse's name. Ibuse was reprimanded by the principal of Fukuyama's school but he was also praised by receiving two fan letters. The reprimand Ibuse received influenced him to express an interest in the visual arts.

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