Mushanokōji took the next step in the development of his philosophy by moving to the mountains of Kijō, Miyazaki in Kyūshū, and establishing a quasi-socialistic utopian commune, Atarashiki-mura (New Village) along vaguely Tolstoyan lines. Soon afterwards, he published (1919), a novel presenting his image of the ideal human; and (1920), a novel portraying the victory of humanism over ego. His idealism appears in his autobiographical novel (1923), and in the play (1922). The commune also published its own literary magazine, Atarashiki-mura. In the 1920s, while running the commune, Mushanokōji was very prolific in his literary output. However, Mushanokōji tired of the social experiment and left the village in 1926; a dam project forced it to relocate to Saitama Prefecture in 1939, where it still exists. After the Great Kantō earthquake of 1923, Mushanokōji returned to Tokyo to run an art gallery, and started to sell his own paintings, mostly still lifes depicting pumpkins and other vegetables. Publication of Shirakaba was suspended after the earthquake, but Mushanokōji went on to bring out the literary magazine, Fuji, with the novelist and playwright Nagayo Yoshirō. During this period, he turned his attention to writing historical novels or biographical novels, such as Ninomiya Sontoku, about the 19th century farm technologist and agricultural philosopher. Through the 1930s and 1940s, he faded from the literary world. Encouraged by his older brother Kintomo Mushanokōji, who was the Japanese ambassador to Nazi Germany, he traveled throughout Europe in 1936. In 1946, he was appointed to a seat in the House of Peers of the Diet of Japan. However, four months later he was purged from public office by the American Occupation authorities, due to his (1942), supporting the actions of the Japanese government in World War II. Mushanokōji made a literary comeback with his novel (1949–1950). He was awarded the Order of Culture in 1951, and became a member of the Japan Art Academy in 1952. Mushanokōji lived to the age of 90. He died at the Jikei University School of Medicine Hospital in Komae, Tokyo of uremia. His grave is at the Chūō Reien in the city of Hachiōji, close to Tokyo. His home in Chōfu, Tokyo, where he lived from 1955 to 1976 has been turned into a memorial museum. Ancestry See also Japanese literature List of Japanese authors References Mortimer, Maya. Meeting the Sensei: The Role of the Master in Shirakaba Writers. Brill Academic Publishers