Takayama Chogyū

Chogyū Takayama (Japanese高山 樗 牛, civil Takayama Rinjiro (高山 林 次郎); born February 28, 1871 in Tsuruoka, † December 24, 1902 ) was a Japanese author and literary critic.

After attending high school in Sendai, Takayama graduated from the Tokyo Imperial University. Here he won a literary competition of the newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun with the historical romance Takiguchi Nyudo (泷 口 入道). While still a student he founded the literary magazine Teikoku Bungaku (帝国 文学) and was a correspondent for the magazine Taiyo (太阳).

After graduating, he taught at his old high school, but returned a year later as an employee of the magazine Taiyo to Tokyo. In 1900 he was selected by the Ministry of Education for a study trip to Europe, but this was prevented by the outbreak of a serious disease.

In the following years he wrote literary and cultural critical articles and grappled with the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. In his last year, he studied the works of Nichiren, a Buddhist teacher of the 13th century, and the author of several writings on him.

Takayama translated Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther in Japanese.

His hometown Tsuruoka gives the annual Takayama Chogyū Prize (高山 樗 牛 赏) to promote writers from the region since 1958.

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• Kamakura City, Kamakura 's Literary Figures - Biography