Contents
Use the menu above to display tables with the names of premodern or modern Japanese writers in both English and Japanese. Also included are the author's dates and the main genre or genres in which he or she worked. Note that these lists follow the usual Japanese practice of giving the surname first. As a convenience, spaces have been added to the Japanese versions of the names; normally these spaces would not appear. The tables are large and may take some time to download.
Dates of birth and death are based on the calendar in effect at the time: the lunar calendar until the second day of the Twelfth Month (nominally December), 1872, and the Gregorian calendar from January 1, 1873 (the dates from December 3 to December 31, 1872, do not exist in Japanese history). Authors who were born or died around the time of the Meiji Restoration may be given dates based on either or both of these calendars, depending on the source (Sōseki is a good example, and writers like Ozaki Kōyō and Saitō Ryokuu will even have different years of birth). Much of the information has been checked in multiple sources (where they conflict and I have been unable to determine which is correct, I have usually given precedence to the Shinchō Nihonbungaku jiten). However, some mistakes may remain and corrections will be gratefully received at the e-mail address shown at the bottom of the site's main page.
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