Mori Ōgai: The Polymath Intellectual Who Made Literary History

The Mori Ōgai Memorial Center in Berlin, with a design based on “Ōgai” (鷗外) written with brush and ink. The location is the same as where Ōgai first stayed in Berlin as a student. (© Jiji)

A handwritten manuscript by Mori Ōgai of “The Dancing Girl” made headlines when it went on sale at a book fair in 2015. (© Jiji)

Mori Ōgai (right) in military uniform, with a favorite horse. Photograph taken in 1912. (Courtesy Mori Ōgai Memorial Museum in Bunkyō, Tokyo)