KANAGAKI ROBUN

(1829–1894)

   Kanagaki Robun was the pen name of Nozaki Bunzo, author and journalist whose activity spanned the Tokugawa and Meiji periods. Two of his representative works, Seiyodochu hizakurige (Shank’s Mare to the Western Seas, 1870–76) and Aguranabe (1871; tr. The Beef Eater, 1956), deal with the opening of Japan to the West and the conflicts between tradition and modernization. He continued writing light fiction while enduring criticism during the Meiji Restoration. Aside from novels, Kanagaki is known for his illustrated biographies, including an adapted biography of Ulysses S. Grant published on the occasion of former U.S. President Grant’s visit to Japan in 1879. He also made shop signs in his youth and later joined painter Kawanabe Kyosai (1831–89) to create Japan’s first manga magazine, Eshinbun Nihonji (Illustrated Japan News).