Famous Japanese Playwrights

Japanese author, poet, and playwright Yukio Mishima is counted amongst the most important Japanese authors of the 20th century. His best-known works feature a fusion of traditional Japanese and modern Western literary styles. He was the founder of the Tatenokai, an unarmed private militia dedicated to traditional Japanese values. He was considered controversial due to his political activities. 

Mamoru Oshii is a Japanese writer, filmmaker, and television director. Renowned for incorporating philosophical values into his storytelling, Oshii's style of filmmaking has attracted praise from other popular directors like Steven Spielberg and James Cameron. Over the years Mamoru Oshii has received nominations for several prestigious awards like the Golden Lion and Palme d'Or.

Often considered an eccentric and superstitious writer, Kyōka Izumi chiefly wrote on fantasy, producing numerous novels, short stories and haiku plays in the backdrop of distinctive and yet supernatural world, using fantasy to criticize many social norms and practices.  Initially trained by Ozaki Kōyō, Izumi has produced several masterpieces, including The Holy Man of Mount Kōya and Worship at Yushima.

Enchi Fumiko was a Japanese writer whose novel, Days of Hunger, earned her the Women's Literature Prize in 1954. One of the most important and popular women writers of the Shōwa era, Enchi also won the Noma Literary Prize for her novel The Waiting Years. Her works were renowned for incorporating elements of eroticism, realism, and fantasy.

Nagai Kafū was a Japanese author, essayist, playwright, and diarist. He is credited with depicting the lives of prostitutes, geishas, and cabaret dancers in early 20th-century Tokyo through his works. Many of his works such as Ude Kurabe have been translated into English.

Kan Kikuchi was a Japanese author who founded a popular publishing company called Bungeishunjū and a successful magazine of the same name. He is also credited with establishing the Naoki and Akutagawa Prize for popular literature as well as the Japan Writer's Association. Kikuchi also served as the head of Daiei Motion Picture Company which was later renamed Kadokawa Pictures.

Sawako Ariyoshi was a Japanese writer best remembered for discussing social issues through her work. Widely regarded as one of the most famous female writers in Japan, Ariyoshi was honored with several prestigious awards like the Fujin Kōron Readers’ Award and Art Selection Minister of Education Award. Her novel, The Doctor's Wife, established her as an excellent postwar Japanese writer.

Tsubouchi Shōyō was a Japanese author, playwright, critic, translator, educator, and editor who also worked as a professor at Waseda University. Widely regarded as an influential figure in Japanese drama, Tsubouchi Shōyō's Kabuki play Kiri Hitoha influenced modern Kabuki. He is also credited with influencing many of Masaoka Shiki's works. The Tsubouchi Memorial Theatre Museum is named in his honor.

Masao Kume was a Japanese novelist, playwright, and haiku poet. Kume is credited with founding the People's Arts Movement by joining hands with Mantarō Kubota and Kaoru Osanai. An important figure in Kamakura literary circles, Masao Kume helped found the Kamakura Carnival as well as the Kamakura P.E.N. Club.

Born into an aristocratic family, Saneatsu Mushanokōji was well-educated but left university without graduating, to begin writing instead. He co-founded the journal Shirakaba. A believer of humanistic optimism, he penned novels such as A Happy Man. A skilled painter, too, he was known for his still lifes. He wrote poems, too.

One of the pioneers of the Japanese popular theater, Japanese author and playwright Hideji Hōjō was regarded as The Emperor. He quit his job in the railways to become a full-time author. He also simplified the kabuki format of plays and popularized the Shinpa style of theater.

Tomio Tada was a Japanese Immunologist who served as the president of the Japanese Society for Immunology from 1985 to 1988. He founded the journal 'International Immunology' in 1989 and served as Editor-in-Chief until 2000. Tomio Tada also served as the president of the International Union of Immunological Societies from 1994 to 1997.