Kobayashi was born in
Odate, Akita, Japan. At the age of four, his family moved to
Otaru, Hokkaido. The family was not wealthy, but Kobayashi's uncle paid his schooling expenses and he was able to attend Hokkaido Otaru Commercial High School and Otaru Commercial School of Higher Learning, which is the current
Otaru University of Commerce. While studying, he became interested in writing, and submitted essays to
literary magazines, served in the editorial committee for his school's alumni association magazine, and also had his own writing published. One of his teachers at school was economist, critic, and poet . Around this time, due to financial hardship and the current economic recession of the time, he joined the
labour movement. After graduating from school, he worked in the
Otaru branch of the
Hokkaido Takushoku Bank. In the
1928 general election, Kobayashi helped with election candidate
Kenzo Yamamoto's campaign, and went to Yamamoto's campaign speech in a village at the base of
Mount Yōtei. This experience was later incorporated into his book . In the same year, his story
March 15, 1928 (based on the
March 15 incident) was published in the literary magazine
Senki ("Standard of Battle" in Japanese). The story depicted
torture by the
Tokkō special higher police, which in turn infuriated government officials. In 1929, Kobayashi's novel
Kanikōsen about a crab-fishing and canning ship's crew determined to stand up to a cruel manager under harsh conditions was published in
Senki. It quickly gained attention and notoriety, and became a standard-bearer of
Marxist proletarian literature. In July of that year, it was adapted into a theatrical performance and was performed at the
Imperial Garden Theater under the title . The full text of
Kanikōsen, now the length of a short novel, was not available in Japan until 1948.
Kanikōsen was subsequently published three times translated into English as
The Cannery Boat (1933),
The Factory Ship (1973), and
The Crab Cannery Ship (2013), as well as in other languages. Also in 1929, Kobayashi published
The Absentee Landlord, after having worked on several versions. This book describes the hard life of local or immigrant tenant farmers on the northern island of
Hokkaido, and their struggle with the way they are treated by rich landowners, as Japan was making efforts to strengthen its colonization of this island and to develop its agriculture and industry. The story is located in the unnamed village of 'S.', close to the town of
Asahikawa, along the
Ishikari River valley, about 80 miles North East of
Otaru where Kobayashi was living. The police (in particular the
Tokubetsu Kōtō Keisatsu or
Tokkō) marked Kobayashi for surveillance, and in the same year the publication of his new book in the
Chūōkōron magazine became grounds for his dismissal from his job at the bank. In the spring of 1930, Kobayashi moved to Tokyo and became the secretary general of the Proletarian Writer's Guild of Japan. On May 23 he was arrested on suspicion of giving financial support to the
Japanese Communist Party, and was temporarily released on June 7. After returning to Tokyo on June 24, he was again arrested and in July, due to
Kanikōsen he was further indicted on charges of
Lèse majesté. In August, he was prosecuted under the
Public Order and Police Law of 1900 and was imprisoned in Toyotama Penitentiary. On January 22, 1931, he was released on bail. He then secluded himself at the Nanasawa Hot Spring in
Kanagawa Prefecture. In October 1931, Kobayashi officially became a member of the outlawed Japan Communist Party. In November, he visited the house of
Naoya Shiga in
Nara Prefecture, and in the spring of 1932, he went underground. No hospital would perform an
autopsy for fear of the
Tokkō. ==Legacy==