Trivia
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- He was born Hasegawa Tatsunosuke on April 4th, 1864 in Edo to an old, but low ranking samurai family.
- His pen name originates from his regret of publishing his novel, the Drifting Cloud, under Tsubouchi Shouyou's name to the point where he cursed at himself to "drop dead" (くたばって仕舞え, Kuttabate shimae). A popular myth mentions that his father cursed at him, telling him to "drop dead" for writing. His father apparently had no understanding of literature.
- His father sent him and his family to Nagoya so he could begin his education in a better environment, as Tokyo was politically unstable at the time. [1]
- He was very idealistic. Even as a child, he was constantly in trouble with his elders and ignored the advice of his family or teachers, instead clinging to his own opinions and ideas. [1]
- During the Meiji Restoration, Futabatei got hooked on Japanese nationalism, and admired the military.
- After failing the entrance examination three times, he had to give up on his dream to join the military, so instead he started learning Russian at the Tokyo Foreign Language School.
- He wrote that his reasoning for this was that “we would have to protect ourselves in some way. The Russian language would be the most essential weapon for our defense” (Futabatei zenshū)
- After dropping out of the school due to a disagreement with organizational changes, Futabatei reached out to Tsubouchi Shouyou, who was only a few years older than him, and they shared similar views on translating Western literature.
- As well as being a writer at this time, he had multiple other jobs, from being a Russian translator to teacher to Russian translator for the military.
- His novel Ukigumo is considered the first modern Japanese novel for its detailed characterization and strong, yet simple, plot. Even though the novel was successful, Futabatei was unhappy with Ukigumo as it did not satisfy his idea of perfection. [1]
- In August of 1889, he accepted a job in the office of Kampo, the official gazette of the Japanese government. Because of this, he became removed from the center of the literary scene until he, again, began publishing translations of Russian stories in 1897. [1]
- In 1908, he got a job offer from Asahi Shinbun as a newspaper correspondent in Russia, so he moved to St. Petersberg.
- In 1909, he fell severely ill, so he went to London to catch a ship back to Japan.
- He died of tuberculosis en route from Russia to Japan at the age of 45, and he was buried in Singapore.