A Japanese anarchist. Ōsugi Sakae was born in 1885, the son of a career military officer, and grew Military Cadet School; enrolled the following year in Foreign Language College. In 1904, he came into contact with the socialist movement through Heimin Shimbun (Commoners’ News), a radical, anti-war newspaper edited by Kōtoku Shūsui and Sakai Toshihiko. He married Hori Yasuko in 1906, and was arrested that same year for taking part in a demonstration against a streetcar fare hike. Other arrests and prison sentences followed, including a sentence of two-and-a-half years for involvement in the 1908 “red flag incident.” Was released from prison in late 1910, around the time Kōtoku and other radicals were sentenced to death for their alleged involvement in a plot to assassinate the emperor.
In 1912, Ōsugi helped to revive the chilled radical movement through establishing the literary journal Kindai shisō (Modern Thought) with Arahata Kanson. The journal was published until 1916. That same year his love affairs with Itō Noe and Kamichika Ichiko led to a public scandal that ended his marriage. He began living with Itō, with whom he established the journal Bunmei hihyō (Critique of Civilization) 1918. Traveled to Shanghai in 1920 to attend the Comintern’s Conference of Far-Eastern Socialists. Attempted to form a “united front” with Communists in 1921 through the newspaper Rōdō undō (The Labor Movement), but soon parted ways with them. He departed Japan at the end of 1922 clandestinely to travel to Shanghai and then went on to Europe, where he hoped to attend an international anarchist conference. Arrested in France the following year for an incendiary speech delivered at a May Day meeting. Ōsugi returned to Japan in July following his deportation from France. Abducted by the military police on September 16, 1923, and he was murdered along with Itō and his six-year-old nephew.
A translator of numerous books, including Kropotkin’s Mutual Aid, Darwin’s The Origin of Species, and Fabre’s Souvenirs entomologiques. His own works include Sei no tōsō (Struggle for Life, 1914), Rōdō undo no tetsugaku (Philosophy of the Labor Movement, 1916), Kuropotokin kenkyū (Studies of Kropotkin, 1920), and Seigi o motomeru kokoro (Justice-Seeking Spirit, 1921); as well as the memoirs Gokuchūki (Prison Memoirs, 1919), Jijoden (Autobiography, 1923; English edition: University of California Press 1992), and Nippon dasshutsu ki (My Escapes from Japan, 1923; English edition: Doyosha, 2014).