Izumi Kyoka (1873-1938) was much admired by Tanizaki, with whom he shared an esteem for Edo culture, by Mishima, who cherished his elaborate style, and by Akutagawa, who much admired his handling of supernatural themes and had a volume of Kyoka's open on his desk the day he committed suicide.
Ghosts, goblins and the life beyond are the stuff of Izumi's drama, all presented in high Edo style and laced with lavish language. These plays were, however, not at all well known during most of the playwright's life. The only one of them staged during his lifetime was "Demon Pond," and though the author so wanted to see his "The Castle Tower" on the stage that he offered to pay the actors and waive his royalties, it was not performed until 1951. One of his best plays, "Yamabuki," was only put on in 1977 and some of his other plays have never been staged at all.
There are a number of reasons for this late approval -- the rise of a less realistic theater, the interest of such avant-garde playwrights as Terayama Shuji and Kara Juro, the devotion of such actors as Bando Tamasaburo, and (as Cody Poulton, author of this interesting study of Kyoka's plays, suggests) changes in the Japanese language.