Arishima Takeo was a novelist, short-story writer, and essayist born in Tokyo of wealthy samurai lineage. He became a Christian following a failed suicide attempt in college, but left Christianity for socialism while studying in the United States. He became acquainted with such authors as Shiga Naoya and Mushanokoji Saneatsu, with whom he formed a group named after their literary journal, Shirakaba. His best-known work, Aru Onna (1909; tr. A Certain Woman, 1951), deals with a woman’s place in Meiji society. Arishima committed double suicide after being discovered by the husband of a lover he took after his wife’s death.
See also AKAI TORI; SATOMI TON.
Historical dictionary of modern Japanese literature and theater. J. Scott Miller. 2009.