is the

pen name A pen name or nom-de-plume 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 name may be used to make the author's na ...

of Japanese

historical novel Historical fiction is a literary genre in which a fictional plot takes place in the setting of particular real historical events. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literature, it can also be applied to oth ...

ist . He was born in an area that is now part of the city of Suwa,

Nagano Prefecture is a Landlocked country, landlocked Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Nagano Prefecture has a population of 2,007,682 () and has a geographic area of . Nagano Prefecture borders Niigata Prefecture ...

, Japan.Jirō Nitta
. Suwa City. Accessed July 25, 2010.

Career

His uncle was the famed meteorologist Sakuhei Fujiwara and his son is mathematician Masahiko Fujiwara. After retiring from the

Japan Meteorological Agency The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA; ''気象庁, Kishō-chō'') is a division of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism dedicated to the Scientific, scientific observation and research of natural phenomena. Headquartered ...

, he began writing professionally. Originally a

meteorologist A meteorologist is a scientist who studies and works in the field of meteorology aiming to understand or predict Earth's atmosphere of Earth, atmospheric phenomena including the weather. Those who study meteorological phenomena are meteorologists ...

, he wrote mainly on themes connected with mountains. At least three of his documentary novels have been translated into English. is based on an incident in 1902 in the

Hakkōda Mountains The are an active volcanic complex in south-central Aomori Prefecture, Japan, in Towada-Hachimantai National Park. Often called or simply , the mountains are collectively listed as one of the 100 Famous Japanese Mountains. Its highest peak, M ...

. is about the adventures of . deals with the

Meiji era The was an Japanese era name, era of History of Japan, Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feu ...

entrepreneur, from northern

Miyagi prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. Miyagi Prefecture has a population of 2,265,724 (1 August 2023) and has a geographic area of . Miyagi Prefecture borders Iwate Prefecture to the north, Akit ...

, who went to Canada in 1896 to export

salmon roe Red caviar is a caviar made from the roe of salmonid fishes (various species of salmon and trout), which has an intense reddish hue. It is distinct from black caviar, which is made from the roe of sturgeon.Nichola Fletcher, ''Caviar: A Global ...

back to Japan. In 1906, he chartered the schooner ''Suianmaru'' to smuggle 82 fellow villagers out of Japan and into Canada. They were apprehended and arrested on

Vancouver Island Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The island is in length, in width at its widest point, and in total area, while are of land. The island is the largest ...

without passports but allowed to stay in Canada thanks to negotiations by (aka Fred Yoshy) of the Japanese

consulate A consulate is the office of a consul. A type of mission, it is usually subordinate to the state's main representation in the capital of that foreign country (host state), usually an embassy (or, only between two Commonwealth countries, a ...

in Vancouver. His 1973 two-volume novel has been adapted into a manga series of the same title in which he is credited as writer.

References

20th-century Japanese novelists Japanese meteorologists Naoki Prize winners Recipients of the Order of the Rising Sun, 4th class Writers from Nagano Prefecture Scientists from Nagano Prefecture 1912 births 1980 deaths Tokyo Denki University alumni {{Japan-writer-stub