Mori Ōgai | |
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Mori Ōgai
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Native name | 森 鷗外 |
Born |
Tsuwano, Shimane, Japan |
February 17, 1862
Died | July 8, 1922 | (aged 60)
Allegiance | Empire of Japan |
Service/branch | Imperial Japanese Army |
Years of service | 1882-1916 |
Rank | Surgeon General of the Imperial Japanese Army (Lieutenant General) |
Battles/wars | |
Other work | Translator, novelist and poet |
Lieutenant-General Mori Ōgai (森 鷗外 / 森 鴎外?, February 17, 1862 – July 8, 1922) was a Japanese Army Surgeon general officer, translator, novelist and poet. The Wild Geese (1911–13) is considered his major work.
Mori was born as Mori Rintarō (森 林太郎?) in Tsuwano, Iwami Province (present-day Shimane Prefecture). His family were hereditary physicians to the daimyō of the Tsuwano Domain. As the eldest son, it was assumed that he would carry on the family tradition; therefore he was sent to attend classes in the Confucian classics at the domain academy, and took private lessons in rangaku and Dutch.
In 1872, after the Meiji Restoration and the abolition of the domains, the Mori family relocated to Tokyo. Mori stayed at the residence of Nishi Amane, in order to receive tutoring in German, which was the primary language for medical education at the time. In 1874, he was admitted to the government medical school (the predecessor for Tokyo Imperial University's Medical School), and graduated in 1881 at the age of 19, the youngest person ever to be awarded a medical license in Japan. It was also during this time that he developed an interest in literature, reading extensively from the late-Edo period popular novels, and taking lessons in Chinese poetry and literature.