Kojin Shimomura (October 3, 1884 – April 20, 1955) was a Japanese novelist from Kanzaki District, Saga Prefecture (now Kanzaki City), most active during the early Showa period, who also made significant contributions to social education. His real name was Korokuro (虎六郎), but he adopted the pen name “Kojin” in reference to the famous work The Lady of the Lake by the Scottish poet Walter Scott, which deeply inspired him.
After graduating from the English Department of the Imperial University of Tokyo, he pursued a career in education, serving as a teacher at Saga Junior High School and as the principal of Kashima Junior High School. Later, he left his teaching career and dedicated himself to social education activities under the mentorship of his senior from his hometown, Tazawa Yoshihira, contributing significantly to the education of working youth. He also wrote the school song lyrics for Karatsu High School and Kashima High School, engaging deeply in regional educational initiatives.
Shimomura’s representative work, The Story of Jiro, is a semi-autobiographical novel that was beloved by many readers from the early Showa period to the post-war years. It was serialized in the magazine Seinen starting in 1936 and portrays the growth of the protagonist, Jiro, while addressing the essence of education and the importance of human development.
The work had a profound impact on Japanese youth and was adapted into films and radio broadcasts, becoming a timeless masterpiece in post-war Japanese literature. Although Shimomura intended to write up to the seventh volume of The Story of Jiro, his work remained unfinished after the fifth volume due to illness. He passed away in 1955 at the age of 71, and his legacy in both education and literature continues to be remembered and celebrated.
