, pen name , was a Japanese

author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...

. His daughter, Aya Kōda, was also a noted author who often wrote about him. Kōda wrote "The Icon of Liberty", also known as "The Buddha of Art" or "The Elegant Buddha", in 1889. A house (Kagyu-an or "snail cottage") in which Kōda lived was rebuilt in 1972 by the Meiji Mura museum. Kōda was one of the first persons to be awarded the

Order of Culture The is a Japanese Order (decoration), order, established on February 11, 1937. The order has one class only, and may be awarded to men and women for contributions to Japanese Art, Japan's art, Japanese Literature, literature, science, technolog ...

when it was established in 1937.

Early life

Rohan was born in the Kanda District of

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

. He went to Hibiya High School and Aoyama Gakuin, but he did not graduate from both schools. He was the son of Kōda Shigenobu (1839?--1914) and Kōda Yu (1842?-1919), whose father was Kōda Ritei, a

samurai The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...

official serving under the local

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and no ...

. Rohan's childhood name was Tetsushirō ("shirō" implying the fourth son) Shigeyuki.

Notable short stories

*"Dewdrops" (1889) *"Love Bodhisattva" (1889) *" Encounter with a Skull" (1890) *"A Sealed Letter" (1890) *"

The Five-Storied Pagoda ''The Five-Storied Pagoda'' (Gojūnotō, 五重塔) is a novella by writer Kōda Rohan. “It was originally written as a serialized piece of fiction in the intellectual newspaper Kokkai (Diet, or Parliament), beginning in November 1891 and endin ...

" (1891) (translated into English as ''The Pagoda'') *" The Bearded Samurai"

Poems

*''Leaving the Hermitage'' (1905)

Novels

*''The Whaler'' (1891) *''The Minute Storehouse of Life'' (unfinished)

In fiction

*The 1960

Kon Ichikawa was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. His work displays a vast range in genre and style, from the anti-war films '' The Burmese Harp'' (1956) and '' Fires on the Plain'' (1959), to the documentary '' Tokyo Olympiad'' (1965), which won t ...

film '' Her Brother'' is adapted from an autobiographical work by Aya Koda. Consequently, the character of "Father" (played by Masayuki Mori) is based on Kōda Rohan. *Kōda Rohan, along with many other historical figures from the

Meiji Restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored Imperial House of Japan, imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Althoug ...

, is a protagonist of the 1985 award-winning

historical fantasy Historical fantasy is a category of fantasy and genre of historical fiction that incorporates fantastic elements (such as magic (fantasy), magic) into a more "realistic" narrative. There is much crossover with other subgenres of fantasy; those c ...

novel '' Teito Monogatari'' by Aramata Hiroshi. In the first film adaptation of the novel, he was played by veteran actor Kōji Takahashi. In the animated adaptation he was voiced by Yūsaku Yara.

References

*Mulhern, Rohan Kishibe - ''Koda Rohan'', Twayne Publishers, 1977 *Rimer, J. Thomas - ''The Columbia Anthology Of Modern Japanese Literature'', Columbia University Press 2005

External links

''The Pagoda'', trans. Sakae Shioya (1909) [pdf online
/nowiki>">df online">''The Pagoda'', trans. Sakae Shioya (1909) [pdf online
/nowiki> 1867 births 1947 deaths 19th-century Japanese novelists Recipients of the Order of Culture 19th-century male writers Japanese male novelists People from Chiyoda, Tokyo Writers from Tokyo 19th-century Japanese short story writers Japanese male short story writers {{Japan-writer-stub