Izumi Kyōka

Izumi Kyōka (泉 鏡花 Izumi Kyōka, 4 November 1873 – 7 September 1939), real name Izumi Kyōtarō (泉 鏡太郎 Izumi Kyōtarō), is the pen name of a Japanese author of novels, short stories, and kabuki plays who was active during the prewar period.

Kyōka's writing differed greatly from that of the naturalist writers who dominated the literary scene at the time. Many of Kyōka's works are surrealist critiques of society. He is best known for a characteristic brand of Romanticism preferring tales of the supernatural heavily influenced by works of the earlier Edo period in Japanese arts and letters, which he tempered with his own personal vision of aesthetics and art in the modern age.