His real name was Murō Terumichi. Born in 1889, he was given birth by his mother Haru, who was never formally married to his father, Kobata Yozaemon-kichidane, a low-ranked military commander from the Kobata family. Right after his birth, he was adopted by Akai Hatsu, a common-law wife of Muro Shinjo, the chief priest at Uho Temple. He gained his Muro family name at the age of seven when he was formally adopted by his stepfather. He never met his biological parents. The fact that he was born as an illegitimate child had an immense impact on his life and his literature. During his childhood, he was bullied by peers as 'the mistress' child'. At the same time, he craved for a mother he never had. This gave him the burden of having double bind thoughts to his biological mother, such as in the following poem; It was written in 1943 when he was 54 years old — an example of how he was haunted by his childhood for most of his life.
Literary career
In 1902, he left Kanazawa High Elementary school and started working as a clerk at the Kanazawa Regional Court. His bosses included haiku readers such as Kawagoe Bukotsu and Akakura Kinpu who taught him how to read/compose haiku. After numerous applications to local newspapers, his haiku was first published on October 8, 1904 in Hokkoku Shimbun. Then he used pseudonym of "Terifumi". Eventually, he also started writing poems and tanka. He started to use his pen name, Saisei, in 1906. The name was an attempt to compete against Kokubu Saitō, an active kanshi writer in the Kanazawa area at the time. He choose "Saisei" to mean "West of the Sai River" which was the place he grew up; Saitō means "east of the Sai River." The Uho Temple was located on the left side of the River Sai. Saisei adored the atmosphere of this river and the mountainous sceneries up the river. In 1913, he was invited by Kitahara Hakushu to write for Hakushu's poem collection “Zanboa”. He befriended Hagiwara Sakutaro through this occasion. In 1916, Saisei and Sakutaro started an unofficial magazine called “Kanjo” to publish their work. They continued to publish the magazine until their 32nd issue in 1919. During the same year, Saisei had written for Chūōkōron, a renowned literary magazine in Japan. He had published such literature as “Childhood” and “Awakening to Sexuality” and was gaining publicity as a writer. He published his first haiku collection “Gyomindouhatsu-kushu” in 1929. By the 1930s, he entered his era of writing novels and published a book titled “Goodbye Poem, I am breaking up with you” in 1934 as his declaration of farewell to poetry, but he actually had composed quite a lot of poems even after this public announcement. In 1935, he received the Bungei Konwakai Award with his novel “Ani Imouto”. He became part of the committee on the Akutagawa Prize and continued until 1942. He also received the Kan Kikuchi award in 1941.
Later years
It was after World War II that Saisei established his status as a novelist, producing many excellent novels. "Anzukko" released in 1958 was a partial autobiography based on his daughter Asako. He won the Yomiuri Prize for this piece. Also in 1958, he received the Mainichi Publishing Culture Prize for his review "The biography of my beloved poet". For his classic based novel "Remenants from the Mayfly's diary", he received the Noma Literary Prize. In the following year, he created the 'Muro Saisei Poet Prize' from the money he received from the prize. He died of cancer in 1962.
Legacy
The full collection of his literature was published both before and after his death. For his poetry, two publishers have published full collection of poems. As for his novels, his daughter Asako Muro has edited and published "The Full Kingdom Story of Muro Saisei". His most famous poem is the following from his small poetry collection:
Home is where you reminisce when you are far away and sing with sorrow
He has never returned to his hometown Kanazawa after his success in Tokyo but always kept a picture of the River Sai. A monument honoring Shusei Tokuda was erected near the summit of Mount Utatsu in 1947. The monument features writing authored by Saisei and was designed by architect Yoshirō Taniguchi.
