Nagai Kafū
| Kafū Nagai | |
|---|---|
Kafū Nagai in 1927
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| Born | Nagai Sōkichi December 3, 1879 Tokyo, Japan |
| Died | April 30, 1959 (aged 79) Ichikawa, Japan |
| Occupation | Author, translator |
| Nationality | Japanese |
| Subject | French literature, Japanese-Edo literature |
| Literary movement | Aestheticism |
Kafū Nagai (永井 荷風 Nagai Kafū?, 3 December 1879 – 30 April 1959) was the pseudonym of the Japanese author, playwright, essayist, and diarist Nagai Sōkichi (永井 壮吉). His works are noted for their depictions of life in early 20th-century Tokyo, especially among geisha, prostitutes, cabaret dancers, and other denizens of the city's lively entertainment districts.
Kafū was born at Kanetomi-chō 45, Koishikawa-ku (now Kasuga-chō, Bunkyō, Tokyo), the eldest son of Nagai Kyūichirō (永井 久一郎), his father, who was 28 years old, and Nagai Tsune (永井 恆), 19. Kyūichirō was a scholar, bureaucrat, and businessman who later became known for his Chinese poetry. Kafū had three brothers and one sister. When the second son was born in 1883, Kafū was sent to live with his mother's family. In 1884, he attended the kindergarten affiliated with the Ochanomizu women's teachers' college, and his father visited Europe on government business. Kafū returned to his parents' home in January 1886, when he started elementary school.
In 1891, he attended a private English-language school in Kanda, Tokyo. In 1894, he became ill, perhaps with scrofula, and spent several months in 1895 in a hospital in Odawara. He began studying the shakuhachi and Chinese poetry in 1896 at the age of 17. In February of the following year, he made his first of many visits to the Yoshiwara red-light district. The same year, he graduated from middle school and failed the entrance exam for university. With his mother and younger brothers, he visited Shanghai, where his father was working for the shipping company Nippon Yusen. He returned to Japan in the autumn and enrolled in the Chinese-language department of the institutions for foreign-language educations affiliated with the Higher Commercial School.
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