Takizawa Bakin

Born July 4, 1767, in Tokyo; died there Dec. 1, 1848. Japanese writer.

Takizawa’s adventure novels, marked by unrestrained fantasy and entertaining plots, were immensely popular. Takizawa borrowed most of his themes from historical annals and from works by earlier Japanese and Chinese writers. His most important work was the didactic novel Satomi and the Eight “Dogs” (1814), which supported official Confucian ethics. Most of his other novels were also didactic, for example, Crescent Moon: The Adventures of Tametomo (1805) and Journey to the West (1806). Many of Takizawa’s works were written in rhythmic prose. Takizawa also wrote in the traditional Japanese genres of the nikki (diary) and zuihitsu (miscellany).