His decision in 1922 to give estates he had inherited from his father to peasant farmers marked the peak of his popularity as a social figure; like Count Leo Tolstoy, Arishima was seen as a radical reformer who sought to act in conformity with his principles. Unable to abide the compromises demanded by an increasingly intolerant and authoritarian Japan, he committed suicide in 1923 with a beautiful young journalist married to a prominent businessman, outraging conservatives but adding to his image as a humanist pursuing an ideal of love.
Arishima was born in his father's house in Tokyo, by that time the capital of a thriving, modern state. His father, Takeshi, was from the Satsuma domain in Kyushu and was a bureaucrat turned banker who moved in the highest official circles. In 1896 he left considerable wealth and estates to Takeo, his oldest son. Yukiko, the boy's mother, was also from a samurai family, and she bore six other children, including the painter Arishima Ikuma and the novelist Satomi Ton.
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