Kinoshita Naoe

Kinoshita Naoe (木下 尚江, Kinoshita Naoe, 12 October 1869 – 5 November 1937) was a Japanese Christian socialist activist and author.

Biography

Kinoshita was a native of Matsumoto, Nagano. After graduating from the predecessor of Waseda University, he returned to Nagano to work as a journalist and lawyer. He later converted to Christianity. Due to his support of the women’s rights movement and advocacy of social issues (particularly the Ashio Copper Mine Incident), he was jailed.

In 1901, Kinoshita joined Abe Isoo, Katayama Sen, Shūsui Kōtoku, and Kawakami Kiyoshi in founding the Shakai Minshūtō (Social Democratic Party). The new political party was quickly banned by the authorities. From 1903, he was an editor of the Heimin Shimbun, a leftist newspaper co-founded by Kōtoku.

In 1904, Kinoshita wrote articles critical of the Russo-Japanese War, and in 1905 unsuccessful ran for election. After the Heimin Shimbun was suppressed by the government, he began to write for the Shin Kigen Christian-socialist magazine. His anti-war novel, Pillar of Fire was banned by the government in 1910. He continued to write pacifist and socialist themed novels for the remainder of his career and in his final years was attracted by attempts to form a union of Christianity with Buddhism.

Kinoshita was also instrumental in abolishing licensed prostitution in Japan.

Works

• The Confession of a Husband (良人の自白, Ryōjin no Jihaku)
• Pillar of Fire (火の柱, Hi no Hashira), translated into English by Kenneth Strong ISBN 978-0048230973
• Repentance (懺悔, Zange)

See also

• Shinkigen

References

• Janet Hunter: "Concise Dictionary of Modern Japanese History", University of California Press, 1984, ISBN 978-0-520-04390-9, S. 93
• John Scott Miller: "Historical Dictionary of Modern Japanese Literature and Theater", Scarecrow Press, 2009, ISBN 978-0-8108-5810-7, S. 53