YAMADA BIMYO

(1868–1910)

   Yamada Bimyo, given name Taketaro, was an author, poet, and critic credited with helping create colloquial written narrative style and for pioneering new forms of poetry. While preparing for college, Yamada and his friends formed a literary journal titled Garakuta bunko (Rubbish Library), where Yamada published his first short sketch, Azakai shosetsu tengu (Mockery and Reproof for a Braggart Novelist, 1886), written in colloquial language. In an 1888 essay, he codified some of his ideas about genbun itchi (unifying speech and writing), attributing both Western novels and the storyteller San’yutei Encho as sources for his style. Although his later historical novels were well received at the time, they were quickly eclipsed by newer experiments. He had a falling out with his former colleagues, and, following his wife’s suicide, died in poverty at age 42.

   See also KODAN; RAKUGO.