Tokutomi Soho, given name Ichiro, was a journalist and historian and the older brother of novelist Tokutomi Roka. He was born in Kumamoto Prefecture, studied at Doshisha University in Kyoto, dropped out, moved to Tokyo, and established the Min’yusha Publishing Company. In the late 1880s, Min’yusha published Japan’s first general news magazine, Kokumin no tomo (The People’s Friend), and Kokumin shimbun (The People’s Newspaper), both of which played important roles in Meiji-period politics and society. Tokutomi started out as an advocate for the Freedom and People’s Rights Movement but changed political orientation by the end of the 19th century, moving in favor of the Meiji oligarchy. Tokutomi’s life work was his monumental 100volume Kinsei Nihon kokumin shi (A People’s History of Early Modern Japan, 1918–52). The government recognized his lifelong efforts and awarded him the Order of Cultural Merit in 1943. Tokutomi was deemed a class-A war criminal under the postwar Occupation and died under house arrest.
See also PUBLISHING HOUSES.
Historical dictionary of modern Japanese literature and theater. J. Scott Miller. 2009.