Profile of Ogai Mori on Famous Like Me

Mori Ogai (森 鴎外 Mori Ōgai, February 17, 1862 - July 9, 1922) was a Japanese physician, novelist and poet. He was born in Tsuwano-cho, Iwami province (now Shimane prefecture) into a family of doctors.

Mori was sent to study in Germany by the Meiji government in 1884 where he stayed for five years. Upon his return he assumed a high rank as a medical doctor in the Japanese army. As a physician, Mori specialized in beriberi, an ailment caused by a deficiency of vitamin B1. His questionable decisions involving the contents of soldiers' rations during the Russo-Japanese War might have cost the lives of thousands of Japanese soldiers (ironically, to the beriberi disease that Mori specialized in).

It was during the Russo-Japanese War that Mori started keeping a poetic diary. After the war, he began holding tanka writing parties that included several noted poets such as Yosano Akiko. As an author, Mori is considered one of the leading writers of the Meiji period, known for works including Maihime (舞姫, The Dancing Girl), Sanshō Dayū (山椒大夫), and Takasebune (高瀬舟).

Mori's real name was Rintarō (林太郎). Ōgai is correctly written as 鷗外 but many computers cannot properly display this kanji and so 鴎外 is often used in its place.

A house which Mori lived in is preserved in Kokura Kita ward in Kitakyushu, not far from Kokura station. Here he wrote Kokura Nikki (Kokura diary). His birthhouse is also preserved in Tsuwano. The two one-story houses are remarkably similar in size and in their traditional Japanese style.

One of Mori's daughters, Mori Mari, influenced the Yaoi movement in contemporary Japanese literature.

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