Mr. Uchida Hyakken
In this short appreciation, Akutagawa Ryunosuke offers an ardent public defense of the writer Uchida Hyakken, whom he admired both personally and artistically. The piece combines literary judgment, personal advocacy, and frustration with the publishing world’s neglect of genuine talent. Akutagawa praises Uchida’s prose as singular, dreamlike, and original, lamenting that his book Meido failed to gain readers after the Great Kanto Earthquake disrupted its circulation. He also points to later works of equal merit that remained known only to a small circle of discerning writers. More than a casual tribute, the essay is a deliberate appeal: Akutagawa insists that Uchida’s poetic imagination deserves recognition, and he writes with urgency to correct what he sees as a serious literary injustice.
Mr. Uchida Hyakken is a disciple of Master Natsume and a senior whom I deeply respect. He is highly accomplished in writing, and is also skilled in the Shida school of koto.
His book Meido, one volume, possesses a distinctive quality that stands apart from anything dependent on another man’s sheltering eaves. Yet unfortunately, because it met with the earthquake disaster immediately after publication, it never came into wide circulation. This is a matter of real regret to me. Even after Meido, Uchida has produced by no means a few fine works. Among them, several pieces published in Josei, especially The Fall of Port Arthur, are works of fierce and striking originality. And yet, those who have read these pieces are, so far as I know, only four men: Muro Saisei, Hagiwara Sakutaro, Sasaki Mosaku, and Kishida Kunio. This too is a matter of regret to me. At a time when every bookseller in the land is intent on putting the new works of new writers onto the market, why is it that no one pays any attention to Mr. Uchida Hyakken? Together with Mr. Sato Haruo, I once tried to bring Meido before the public again, but to this day our small powers have failed to achieve any effect. Uchida Hyakken’s writing contains something of a haikai flavor, yet in its dreamlike quality it is second to none. On this point, I believe the gentlemen named above would surely speak with the same voice as I. Mr. Uchida Hyakken is now at the Waseda Hotel. Is there no one who will visit him and ask him for his work? I write this poor piece not merely out of friendship, but because I sincerely believe in Mr. Uchida Hyakken’s poetic genius.