Ueda Akinari
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Ueda Akinari or Ueda Shūsei (上田秋成, 1734 - August 8,1809) was a Japanese author, scholar, and waka poet. Born to an Osaka prostitute and an unknown father, he was adopted in his fourth year by a wealthy merchant who reared him in comfort and provided him with a good education. He inherited the Ueda family business when his foster father died, but lost it to a fire, after which he studied medicine and worked for some years as a physician.
His true love, however, was Kokugaku, or National Learning, the study of classical Japanese literature, especially waka, about which he wrote a number of studies and commentaries. In 1776 he published his masterpiece, Ugetsu monogatari (translated as Tales of Moonlight and Rain), an elegant kaidanshu of nine neo-classical tales of strange and anomalous beings and happenings, adapted from earlier Chinese and Japanese sources. Two of his stories were adapted by the director Kenji Mizoguchi for his famous 1953 film Ugetsu monogatari. Late in life Akinari compiled another collection of stories and essays, Harusame monogatari (translated as Tales of the Spring Rain). He died in Kyoto.
Works
- Tales of Rainmont (雨月物語 Ugetsu monogatari) (1776)
- Tales of the Spring Rain (春雨物語 Harusame monogatari) (1809)
References
See also
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