Ueda Akinari

Ueda Akinari,
pseudonym of Ueda Senjiro (b. July 25, 1734, Ōsaka,
Japan—d. Aug. 8, 1809, Kyōto), preeminent writer and
poet of late 18th-century Japan, best known for his
tales of the supernatural.
Ueda was adopted
into the family of an oil and paper merchant and
brought up with great kindness. A childhood attack
of smallpox left him with some paralysis in his
hands, and it may have caused his blindness late in
life. Ueda became interested in classical Japanese
and Chinese literature around the age of 25. He had
started to write ukiyo-zōshi, “tales of the floating
world,” the popular fiction of the day, when in 1771
the business he had managed since his stepfather’s
death (1761) burned down. He took that as his
opportunity to devote his full time to writing. In
1776, after eight years of work, he produced Ugetsu
monogatari (Tales of Moonlight and Rain). These
ghost tales showed a concern for literary style not
present in most popular fiction of the time, in
which the text was usually simply an accompaniment
for the illustrations that formed the main part of
the books.
A student of
history and philology, Ueda called for a revival of
classical literature and language reform. His late
years were spent in poverty-stricken wandering. His
Harusame monogatari (1808; Tales of the Spring Rain)
is another fine story collection. Ugetsu monogatari
was the basis for the film Ugetsu (1953), directed
by Mizoguchi Kenji.