UNO KOJI

(1891–1961)

   Uno Koji, given name Kakujiro, was a novelist from Fukuoka who graduated in English literature from Waseda University. He published a collection of stories, Seijiro yume o miru ko (Seijiro, the Child Who Dreams, 1913). He further established himself as a writer with the novel Kura no naka (1919; tr. In the Storehouse, 1997), and thereafter made friends with Hirotsu Kazuo and Akutagawa Ryunosuke. He also wrote I-Novels and children’s literature. He encouraged Minakami Tsutomu in his early writing efforts, was on the selection committee for the Akutagawa Ryunosuke Prize, and won the Yomiuri Prize for Omoikawa (River of Thoughts, 1951).