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He was born Hidetsugu Yoshikawa (吉川英次 Yoshikawa Hidetsugu) in Kanagawa Prefecture, in what is now a part of Yokohama. Because of his father's failed business, he had to drop out of primary shcool to work when he was eleven years old. When he was 18, after a near-fatal accident working at the Yokohama docks, he moved to Tokyo and became an apprentice in a gold lacquer workshop. Around this time he became interested in comic haiku. He joined a poetry society and started writing comic haikus under the pseudonymn "Kijiro".
In 1914, with The Tale of Enoshima, he won first prize in a novel-writing contest sponsored by the publisher Kodansha. He joined the newspaper Maiyu Shimbun in 1921, and in the following year he began publishing serializations, starting with Life of ShinranShinran ( 1173- 1262) was pupil of Honen and founder of the Jodo Shinshu (or True Pure Land) Buddhism in Japan. Shinran was born at the close of the Heian period, when political power was passing from the imperial court into the hands of warrior clans..
He married Yasu Akazawa in 1923Centuries: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s Years: 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 Events January 1 Grouping of all UK railway companies into four larg, the year of the Great Kanto Earthquake. His experiences in the earthquake strengthened his resolve to make writing his career. In the following years he published stories in various periodicals published by Kodansha, which recognized him as their number one author. He used 19 different pen names before settling on Yoshikawa Eiji. He first used this pen-name with the serialization of Sword Trouble, Woman Trouble. His name became a household word after Secret Record of Naruto was serialized in the Osaka Mainichi ShimbunThe Mainichi Shimbun (, lit. Daily News") is one of Japan's largest newspapers. It is headquartered in Hitotsubashi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo. It was formed by the merger of the Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shimbun (, lit. Tokyo Daily News") and the Osaka Mainichi Shimbun,. From then on the public's appetite for his brand of adventure writing was insatiable.
In the early thirties his writing became introspective, reflecting growing troubles in his personal life. But in 1935Events January January 1 Italian colonies of Tripoli and Kyrenaika are joined together as Libya January 7 World War II: Italian premier Benito Mussolini and French foreign minister Pierre Laval conclude agreement in which each power undertakes not to oppo, with the serialization of Miyamoto MusashiMiyamoto Musashi ( Miyamoto Musashi (c. 1584 June 13, 1645) was a famous Japanese swordsman. Biography Much of Miyamoto Musashi's past is shrouded in mystery and legends and made up stories. His place and date of birth are in doubt but three places lay cl in the Asahi ShimbunAsahi Shimbun ( Asahi Shinbun is a national leading newspaper in Japan. Though the circulation, which is 12,600,000 as of 2002, is behind that of Yomiuri Shinbun, the influence is considered greater. Its views are more liberal than those of the Yomiuri Sh, his writing settled firmly in the genre of historical adventure fiction.
Upon the outbreak of war with China in 1937 the Asahi Shimbun sent him into the field as a special correspondent. At this time he also divorced Yasu Akazawa and married Fumiko Ikedo. During the war he continued writing novels, and became more influenced by Chinese culture. Among the works of this period are Taiko and his re-telling of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
At the end of the war he stopped writing and settled down to a quiet retirement in Yoshino (present-day Oumeshi) on the outskirts of Tokyo, but he soon started writing again in 1947. His post-war works include New Tale of the Heike, published in the Asahi Weekly ( 1950), and A Private Record of the Pacific War ( 1958).
He was awarded the Cultural Order of Merit in 1960 and the Mainichi Art Award just before his death in 1962, of cancer.