Karatani Kojin, given name Yoshio, is a literary critic and philosopher of global fame. He graduated from Tokyo University, and at the age of 27 he gained attention in literary circles for “Ishiki to shizen” (Consciousness and Nature, 1969), his essay on Natsume Soseki. Three years later he published the essay “Ifu suru ningen” (Human in Awe, 1972) and was invited to become a visiting professor at Yale University. Karatani has been nicknamed “The Thinking Machine” for the variety and depth of topics he has analyzed. He has also taught at Hosei University in Tokyo, Columbia University, and Kinki University (Osaka). Karatani’s Nihon kindai bungaku no kigen (1980; tr. Origins of Modern Japanese Literature, 1993) has been translated into English, and in 2007 he gave a lecture at Stanford University. He has also written extensively on Marxism.
Historical dictionary of modern Japanese literature and theater. J. Scott Miller. 2009.