was the

pen name A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen na ...

of , an early Shōwa period Japanese author, Zen priest, post office director and

sub-lieutenant Sub-lieutenant is usually a junior officer rank, used in armies, navies and air forces. In most armies, sub-lieutenant is the lowest officer rank. However, in Brazil, it is the highest non-commissioned rank, and in Spain, it is the second high ...

. The pen name roughly means "a person who always dreams". His Dharma name was . He wrote detective novels and is known for his

avant-gardism The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or 'vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical De ...

and his surrealistic, wildly imaginative and fantastic, even bizarre narratives. His eldest son, Sugiyama Tatsumaru, was known as the Green Father of India for spending billions of yen on reforestation.

Early life

Yumeno was born in Fukuoka city, Fukuoka prefecture as Sugiyama Naoki. His father, Sugiyama Shigemaru, was a major figure in the pre-war ultranationalist organization, the Genyōsha. After graduating from

Shuyukan is a co-educational public senior high school in Fukuoka, Fukuoka, Japan. Overview Founded as a Han school in 1784, Edo period, Shuyukan is one of the oldest high schools in Japan with a history of over 200 years. After the Meiji Restoration, ...

he attended the Literature Department at

Keio University , mottoeng = The pen is mightier than the sword , type = Private research coeducational higher education institution , established = 1858 , founder = Yukichi Fukuzawa , endowmen ...

, but dropped out on orders from his father, and returned home to take care of the family farm. In 1926 he decided to become a Buddhist priest, but after a couple of years in the monastery, he returned home again as Sugiyama Yasumichi. By this time, he had developed a strong interest in the traditional Japanese drama form of Noh, with its genre of ghost stories and supernatural events. He found employment as a freelance reporter for the ''Kyushu Nippō'' newspaper (which later became the ''

Nishinippon Shimbun The is a Japanese language daily newspaper published by the . As of 2022, it had a circulation of about 467,000 (total of morning and evening editions). It is headquartered in Fukuoka, which accounts for the bulk of its circulation, and is also ...

''), while writing works of fiction on the side.

Literary career

Kyūsaku's first success was a nursery tale ''Shiraga Kozō'' (White Hair Boy, 1922), which was largely ignored by the public. It was not until his first novella, ''Ayakashi no Tsuzumi'' (The Spirit Drum, 1924) in the

literary magazine A literary magazine is a periodical devoted to literature in a broad sense. Literary magazines usually publish short stories, poetry, and essays, along with literary criticism, book reviews, biographical profiles of authors, interviews and letter ...

''Shin-Seinen'', that his name became known. His subsequent works include ''Binzume jigoku'' (Hell in the Bottles, 1928), ''Kori no hate'' (End of the Ice, 1933), and his most significant novel ''Dogura Magura'' (Dogra Magra, 1935), which is considered a precursor of modern Japanese science fiction and was adapted for a 1988 movie directed by

Toshio Matsumoto (25 March 1932 – 12 April 2017) was a Japanese film director and video artist. Biography Matsumoto was born in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, Japan and graduated from Tokyo University in 1955. His first short was '' Ginrin'', which he made in 1 ...

and starring

Shijaku Katsura II was a Japanese rakugo performer of the late 20th century, who often performed in English. He was born in Kobe, the son of a brick-maker. In 1960 he entered the tutelage of the rakugo performer , and upon completion of his study, was given th ...

, Hideo Murota, and

Yōji Matsuda is a Japanese actor and voice actor from Tokyo, Japan. Early life He was born in Setagaya, Tokyo. His older brother is Naoyuki Matsuda, a musical translator and professor at Komazawa University. After studying at Aoyama Gakuin High School, he dr ...

. ''Dogra Magra'' exemplifies modern Japanese avant-garde gothic literature. In the story, the protagonist/narrator wakes up in a hospital with

amnesia Amnesia is a deficit in memory caused by brain damage or disease,Gazzaniga, M., Ivry, R., & Mangun, G. (2009) Cognitive Neuroscience: The biology of the mind. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. but it can also be caused temporarily by the use ...

. He finds out that he was the subject of an experiment by a now-dead psychiatrist, and the doctors are working to bring back his memories. It is not clear whether he was a psychotic killer or the victim of a strange psychological experiment, but it is told that he killed his mother and wife and that he inherited his psychotic tendencies from an insane ancestor. The novel is strongly influenced by

Freud Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts in ...

ian psychoanalysis and, through Yumeno's contacts there, provides considerable historical insight into the development of the study of psychoanalysis at

Kyushu Imperial University , abbreviated to , is a Japanese national university located in Fukuoka, on the island of Kyushu. It was the 4th Imperial University in Japan, ranked as 4th in 2020 Times Higher Education Japan University Rankings, one of the top 10 Design ...

. Kyūsaku died of a

cerebral hemorrhage Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as cerebral bleed, intraparenchymal bleed, and hemorrhagic stroke, or haemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain, into its ventricles, or into both. It is one kind of bleed ...

in 1936 while talking with a visitor at home.

Works in translation

English translation

Short stories * "Love After Death" (original title: Shigo no Koi) (''Modanizumu: Modernist Fiction from Japan, 1913-1938'', University of Hawaii Press, 2008) * "Hell in a Bottle" (original title: Binzume Jigoku) (''Three-Dimensional Reading: Stories of Time and Space in Japanese Modernist Fiction, 1911-1932'', University of Hawaii Press, 2013) * "Hell in Bottles" (original title: Binzume Jigoku) (''The Nashville Review, Volume 25, Vanderbilt University, 2018) * "Building" (original title: Birudingu) (''The Literary Review, Volume 60 No 2: Physics'', Farleigh Dickinson University, 2017) Novel * "The Spirit Drum" (original title: Ayakashi no Tsuzumi) (Arigatai Books, 2019, translated by J.D. Wisgo) * "Kaimu: A Collection of Disturbing Dreams" (original title: Kaimu) (Arigatai Books, 2021, translated by J.D. Wisgo) Essay * "Terrifying Tokyo" ('' Tokyo stories: a literary stroll'', University of California Press, 2002)

French translation

Novel * ''Dogra Magra'' Philippe Picquier (2003).

Spanish translation

Short stories * .

References

External links

* *
J'Lit , Authors : Kyusaku Yumeno , Books from Japan

at Aozora Bunko {{DEFAULTSORT:Yumeno, Kyusaku 1889 births 1936 deaths Japanese male short story writers Japanese horror writers Japanese mystery writers 20th-century Japanese novelists People from Fukuoka 20th-century Japanese short story writers 20th-century Japanese male writers 20th-century Buddhists Japanese Buddhists