A Young Edogawa Rampo

In his later years, Rampo looked back on his youth and wrote the following:

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"I was poor, and I had a strong desire to enter the business world and live a life without financial worries. The reason I chose to become a trading merchant was partly because of that, but it seemed that the job did not suit my nature. It wasn't that I lacked business instincts; at times, I even worked hard enough to be praised by executives. However, I lacked the endurance to repeat the same tasks every day without getting bored. Also, since I lived in a dormitory, I had very few opportunities to be alone and indulge in my own thoughts (or, more positively, to engage in contemplation), which was the most unbearable thing for me. I quit the trading business after about a year, and after that, I moved through various jobs, but none of them lasted."

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— "Forty Years of Detective Fiction" (Part 1)
Edogawa Rampo Complete Works, Volume 28 (Kōbunsha Bunko, 2016)