Kōda Rohan
23 July 1867 – 30 July 1947, pen name Kōda Rohan, was a Japanese author. His daughter, Aya Kōda, was also a noted author who often wrote about him. Kōda wrote "The Icon of Liberty", also known as "The Buddha of Art" or "The Elegant Buddha", in 1889.
Also recorded as Kōda Shigeyuki · Koda Rohan · Kouda Rohan
Kōda Rohan

三人日 · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Name
- Kōda Rohan
- Birth Name
- Kōda Shigeyuki
- Born
- 23 July 1867
- Birthplace
- Tokyo, Japan
- Died
- 30 July 1947
- Occupation
- author
- Nationality
- Japan.
- Education
- Kyoto University.
- Honours
- Order of Culture.
- Languages
- Japanese.
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
23 July 1867 – 30 July 1947, pen name Kōda Rohan, was a Japanese author. His daughter, Aya Kōda, was also a noted author who often wrote about him. Kōda wrote "The Icon of Liberty", also known as "The Buddha of Art" or "The Elegant Buddha", in 1889.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Kōda Rohan. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q1038466 · wikipedia · Kōda Rohan
In this article
Biography
Biography
A house in which Kōda lived, snail cottage, was rebuilt in 1972 by the Meiji Mura museum. Kōda was one of the first persons to be awarded the Order of Culture when it was established in 1937.
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Kōda Rohan • Birth Name — Kōda Shigeyuki • Born — 23 July 1867 • Birthplace — Tokyo, Japan • Died — 30 July 1947 • Place of death — Tokyo, Japan • Other Names — 幸田 露伴、幸田 成行 • Occupation — author • Family — Nobu Kōda (sister), Kou Ando (sister)
Early life
Early life
Rohan was born in the Kanda District of Tokyo. He went to Hibiya High School and Aoyama Gakuin, but he did not graduate from both schools. He was the son of Kōda Shigenobu (1839?–1914) and Kōda Yu (1842?–1919), whose father was Kōda Ritei, a samurai official serving under the local daimyō. Rohan's childhood name was Tetsushirō Shigeyuki, "shirō" implying the fourth son.
Notable short stories
Notable short stories
• "Dewdrops" (1889) • "Love Bodhisattva" (1889) • "Encounter with a Skull" (1890) • "A Sealed Letter" (1890) • "The Five-Storied Pagoda" (1891) (translated into English as The Pagoda) • "The Bearded Samurai"
Poems
Poems
• Leaving the Hermitage (1905)
Novels
Novels
• The Whaler (1891) • The Minute Storehouse of Life (unfinished)
In fiction
In fiction
• The 1960 Kon Ichikawa film Her Brother is adapted from an autobiographical work by Aya Koda. Consequently, the character of "Father" (played by Masayuki Mori) is based on Kōda Rohan. • Kōda Rohan, along with many other historical figures from the Meiji Restoration, is a protagonist of the 1985 award-winning historical fantasy novel Teito Monogatari by Aramata Hiroshi. In the first film adaptation of the novel, he was played by veteran actor Kōji Takahashi. In the animated adaptation he was voiced by Yūsaku Yara.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Tokyo.
Birth place
Ichikawa.
Death place
Primary material
Documents and archives
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q1038466: Kōda Rohan
General reference · Wikidata
reference work
- “Kōda Rohan”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
authority record
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 15 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Books
39,078 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Koča PopovićAuthor
- Koca Ragıp PaşaAuthor
- Koçi BeyAuthor
- Kočo RacinAuthor
- Kodai no KimiAuthor
- Kode9Author
- Koen PeetersAuthor
- Koffi KwahuléAuthor
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Kōda Rohan?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.