Mori Ogai [key], 1862–1922, Japanese army physician, medical researcher, literary critic, novelist, translator, scholar, and playwright, he is now primarily remembered for his fiction. After an early flurry of literary activity, Ogai concentrated on his medical career with the Japanese army, but upon his retirement, turned to writing fiction full time. Ogai played a leading role in the Japanese romantic literary movement, taking a stand against naturalism incorporating elements from Japanese, Chinese, and western civilization. His later works, fictionalized accounts of historical incidents and personages, stressed the virtues of patriotism and self-sacrifice.
See study by R. J. Bowring (1979).
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