Kaijin Akashi (Japanese: 明石 海人) was the pen name of Shōtarō Noda (野田勝太郎, 5 July 1901 – 9 June 1939), a Japanese poet whose writing was inspired by his diagnosis of leprosy and confinement to a leper colony.^[1]

Akashi was born in Numazu, Shizuoka prefecture on 5 July 1901. He was the third son of a farmer. At the age of twenty, he graduated from Shizuoka Normal School with a license to teach elementary school. He worked as a teacher until 1926.^[2][3] In 1924, he married Asako Furugōri, also an elementary school teacher.^[3] They had two daughters, born in February 1925 and late 1926.^[2][3]

Akashi began to show symptoms of leprosy in early 1926, and was diagnosed that same spring.^[2][3] He retired from teaching after his diagnosis and was soon subjected to the mandatory quarantine regime in practice in Japan at that time.^[3] In the following year, he was hospitalized in Akashi Rakusei hospital (明石楽生病院),^[3] which stood in what is now Nishi-ku, Kobe.^[4] When this facility closed in 1932, he was moved to the leper colony Nagashima Aiseien Sanatorium.^[3]

While at Nagashima Aiseien, Akashi learned to write traditional Japanese poetry, primarily tanka. His poems were published in the sanatorium's magazine, Aisei;^[3] and he became one of the best-known of a group of leprosy patients who wrote poetry and prose about their condition, a genre referred to as "leprosy literature" until the 1940s.^[5][6]

Akashi's health deteriorated as a result of his condition, and in autumn of 1936, he went blind.^[2] On 11 November 1938, he underwent a tracheotomy as a result of difficulty in breathing.^[2] On 9 June 1939, he died at the sanatorium of intestinal tuberculosis.^[2]

He published his most successful work, Hakubyō, in 1939, shortly before his death.^[7][8] It sold over 250,000 copies^{[note 1]} and drew significant attention to the plight of leprosy patients in Japan.^[8][9] Hakubyō was a bittersweet work, exploring Akashi's grief over his condition and the loneliness that stemmed from his lengthy mandated isolation, as well as his eventual view that his condition was a gift enabling him to experience beauty and insight beyond the physical world.^[8]

Akashi's work continues to be read and studied by contemporary scholars.^[3] Inspired by Akashi's poetry, Japanese photographer Atsushi Fujiwara photographed the decaying remains of Nagashima Aiseien for his 2015 book Poet Island.^[10] Four monuments honoring Akashi were erected in his home town of Numazu in 2001.^[3]

• 海人遺稿 (Kaijin ikō). Tokyo: Kaizōsha, 1939. NCID BA32958162, OCLC 672684061.
  • New edition. Tokyo: Ozorasha, 1998. ISBN 475680439X.
• 白描 明石海人歌集 (Hakubyō: Akashi Kaijin kashū). Tokyo: Kaizōsha, 1939. NCID BN12555325, OCLC 674958110. (transl. A Plain Sketch; 1939)^[8][11][12]
• 明石海人全集 (Akaishi Kaijin zenshū). 2 vols. Tokyo: Kaizōsha, 1941. NCID BN11353584, OCLC 672411359.
  • New edition. Takeshi Muramatsu [Wikidata], et al, eds. 海人全集 (Kaijin zenshū). 3 vols. Tokyo: Koseisha, 1993. NCID BN0950746X, OCLC 51018011.
• Hiroto Uchida, ed. 明石海人全歌集 (Akaishi Kaijin zenkashū). Tokyo: Tanka-shinbun-sha, 1978. NCID BN0738216X, OCLC 673783389.
• Osamu Murai [Wikidata], ed. 明石海人歌集 (Akashi Kaijin kashū). Tokyo: Iwanami, 2012. ISBN 9784003119013.