Hyakken Uchida

Hyakken Uchida (内田 百間, Uchida Hyakken, May 29, 1889 – April 20, 1971) was a Japanese author and academic. Uchida was born in Okayama to a family of sake brewers whose business later went bankrupt. His real name is Eizo Uchida (内田 榮造 Uchida Eizō). He became a pupil of Natsume Sōseki in 1911. He graduated from Tokyo University (Tokyo Imperial University) in 1914. He became professor of German at Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1916. He later taught at Hosei University (Tokyo). He is the main subject of Akira Kurosawa's last film, Madadayo (まあだだよ). His novel, Disk of Sarasate (サラサーテの盤, Sarasāte no ban) is the inspiration for the film, Zigeunerweisen. He is the author of more than fifteen volumes of writings including I am a Cat: The Fake Version (贋作吾輩は猫である, Gansaku wagahai ha neko de aru), and Gates Close at Dusk (日没閉門, Nichibotsu heimon). In Japan he is well known as a passionate railfan and he made some works on railway travel. Though a great literary figure in Japan, he currently only has one book translated into English: Realm of the Dead (冥途 Meido). That volume also includes the collection Triumphal Entry into Ryojun (Ryojun Nyujōshiki (旅順入城式)). "Small Round Things", a translated excerpt from another collection, Jottings from the Goblins' Garden (Hyakkien Zuihitsu (百鬼園随筆)), appeared in the JAL inflight magazine Skyward in January 2006. He had two sons and three daughters.