Masao Kume

Masao Kume (久米正雄) was a Japanese popular playwright, novelist and haiku poet (under the pen-name of Santei) active during the late Taishō and early Showa periods of Japan.

Early life
Kume was born in Ueda city, Nagano prefecture. His father was the principal of the local elementary school, and committed suicide in 1897 to take responsibility for a fire which destroyed a portion of the school where Emperor Meiji had stayed during a visit to Ueda. Kume moved with his mother to her home in Kōriyama city, Fukushima prefecture, where he was raised.

Literary career
Kume exhibited a talent for haiku poetry even in elementary school. After graduating from Tokyo Imperial University under Natsume Sōseki (together with classmates Ryūnosuke Akutagawa and Kikuchi Kan, he joined a literary group that published a magazine called (Shinshicho (新思潮)).

His debut as a playwright came with Gyunyuya no Kyodai, which was staged in 1914 and proved to be very popular. By 1916, he had published his first novel Chichi no Shi ("My Father's Death") and a play Abukuma Shinju ("Love Suicides at Abukuma"). In 1918 he founded the Kokumin Bungeikai ("People's Arts Movement") with Osanai Kaoru and Kubota Mantaro.

His fame as a novelist grew when he wrote a series of stories, including Hotaru Gusa, Hasen ("Shipwreck"), and Bosan ("Visit to a Grave"), about his unrequited love for Natsume Sōseki's eldest daughter (he proposed to her via her parents, as was the practice at the time, but she surprised everyone by announcing her love for Kume's classmate and close friend Matsuoka Yuzuru instead).

In 1933, he wrote a melodramatic novel Tsuki yori no shisha ("Messenger from the Moon"), which was a major best-seller.

Life in Kamakura
Kume relocated from Tokyo to Kamakura, Kanagawa prefecture due to the Great Kantō Earthquake of 1923, residing there until his death in 1952 at the age of 60. He was a prominent figure in Kamakura literary circles, helping to establish the Kamakura P.E.N. Club, the Kamakura Carnival, and running the Kamakura Bunko lending library.

Kume suffered from high blood pressure much of his life, and died of a cerebral hemorrhage. His grave is at the temple of Zuisen-ji in Kamakura.

Trivia

 * Kume was arrested in Kamakura in 1933, along with fellow literati Kawaguchi Matsutaro and Satomi Ton for illegal card gambling.
 * After Kume's death, his house was physically relocated from the Nikaido district of Kamakura to Kōriyama in Fukushima prefecture, where it now houses the Koriyama Bunkagu no Mori Museum.
 * There is a bronze statue of Kume in the grounds of Hase-dera in Kamakura.