Chogoro Kaionji

Chogoro Kaionji (海音寺潮五郎 Kaionji Chōgorō), real name Tosaku Suetomi (末富 東作 Suetomi Tosaku, November 5, 1901 – December 1, 1977), was a Japanese author, born in Kagoshima Prefecture. After graduating from Kokugakuin University, he began writing fiction while teaching at a junior high school. His early novel Utakata Zoshi(Transient Notes) won prizes a contest run by the Mainichi Shimbun weekly magazine, Sunday Mainichi in 1929, and he repeated this feat in 1932 with his second novel Fuun (Bad Luck.

Kaionji moved to Kamakura from Kyoto in 1934, when he made his resolution to pursue a career as a professional writer. He won the prestigious Naoki Prize in 1936 with Tensho Onna Gassen (Tensho Women’s Battle) and Budo Denraiki (Samurai Chronicles). After the Pacific War, he completed epic novels such as Moko Kitaru (Mongol Attack), Taira no Masakado and Ten to Chi to (Heaven and Earth), which formed the basis of some equally epic movies. While writing TV dramas on the side, he contributed to the field of historical/biographical novels with Busho Retsuden (Biographies of Warriors) and Akunin Retsuden (Biographies of Villains)". He considered his life’s work to be a biography of Saigo Takamori, but Kaionji died on December 1, 1977 before its completion. His grave is at the Tsukiji Hongan-ji in Tokyo.