Mori Ohgai, one of the greatest novelists in Japan, was a multitalented person excelling in literature, translation of Western dramas, medical science, nutrition science and aesthetics.
Born into a medical doctor’s family to the feudal lord of the Tsuwano domain in present Shimane Prefecture in 1862, Mori Ohgai was reputed to be a promising person even in his youth.
Right after the end of the Tokugawa samurai government, he moved to Tokyo with his father at the age of ten, after that he entered present Tokyo University’s medical department.
He became an army doctor after graduating from the university and was dispatched to Germany to study an advanced medical science for four years. His prominent talent for literature seemed to grow up when he returned to Japan from Germany, because he started to translate Western literary works one after another just at that time. In addition, he also taught a class on aesthetics at his old school and other major universities in Tokyo. But it is said that his turning point in his life arrived when he moved to Kokura, Fukuoka Prefecture, in 1899.
Through the life in Kokura for three years, his sence of elitism faded and he became tender to the common people. This change was helpful to make him a greater novelist highly evaluated by many people in Japan than before. After Kokura, he returned to Tokyo as a Surgeon General, the highest-ranking army doctor. Most of his literary works were done after this time. The photo shows his house in Kokura when he was lonely after his divorce.
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