10 Facts About Sanjugo Naoki

Sanjugo Naoki was a pen name of a novelist in Taisho and Showa period Japan.

Naoki Sanjugo was born in what is Chuo-ku, Osaka.

Sanjugo Naoki returned to Osaka shortly after Great Kanto earthquake of 1923.

At the invitation of Matsutaro Kawaguchi, Sanjugo Naoki started working in Osaka as editor of the literary magazine Kuraku, contributed his own works of fiction as well, and soon began publishing novels.

Sanjugo Naoki obtained a post at the literary magazine Bungeishunju, where he developed a reputation for writing scathing literary criticism, mixed with scandalous gossip about the writer, which outraged many of his contemporaries.

Sanjugo Naoki had a reputation for being eccentric, as evidenced by his choice of a pen name, which he changed four times between ages 31 and 35 to match his age.

Sanjugo Naoki died in 1934 at the age of 43 from an acute case of Japanese encephalitis.

Yasunari Kawabata, with whom Sanjugo Naoki shared a common interest in the game of go, wrote the eulogy for his funeral.

Sanjugo Naoki's grave is at the temple of Chosho-ji in Kanazawa-ku, Yokohama.

In 1935, on the suggestion of Kikuchi Kan, Sanjugo Naoki's name was given to an award for popular fiction, the Sanjugo Naoki Prize.