was a Japanese literary critic and a professor of Russian literature at Waseda University. He is also known as Tengen Katagami (片上天絃; later 片上天弦).

Biography

Katagami was born in Ehime,

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, and graduated Waseda University in 1906, majoring

English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...

. He supported naturalism as an editor of a journal ''

Waseda bungaku , mottoeng = Independence of scholarship , established = 21 October 1882 , type = Private , endowment = , president = Aiji Tanaka , city = Shinjuku , state = Tokyo , country = Japan , students = 47,959 , undergrad = 39,382 , postgrad ...

''. He became a professor at Waseda University in 1910, but later he became interested in

Russian literature Russian literature refers to the literature of Russia and its émigrés and to Russian language, Russian-language literature. The roots of Russian literature can be traced to the Middle Ages, when epics and chronicles in Old East Slavic were c ...

and traveled to Russia to study

(1915-1918). In 1920, when Waseda University created a department of

, Katagami was appointed as the chief professor. Masuji Ibuse, who was one of his students at that time, was harassed sexually by Katagami, so he had to leave the university before graduation (1921). Katagami's literature theory became the basis of proletarian literature in

. 1884 births 1928 deaths Japanese writers Slavists Waseda University alumni {{Japan-writer-stub