Katai was sent with his elder brother and sister to Tokyo, where he entered a bookshop as an apprentice, but he lost his position and returned to Tatebayashi in 1882.

He joined the Bungakukai group in 1896, and became friends with Kunikida Doppo, who introduced him to the works of Western writers such as Guy de Maupassant, by which he was profoundly influenced.

In 1903 a female admirer, Michiyo Okada [jp] (1885-1968), had written to him; apparently influenced by Gerhart Hauptmann's play Einsame Menschen, Tayama gave the fan permission to come to Tokyo as a literary pupil.

She arrived in February 1904, but was a houseguest for only a month before he left for Manchuria on 23 March; after his return on 20 September, she moved back in, and stayed until January 1906.

); this experience was unhappy, and punctuated by the deaths of friends and family members, with the result that his later works take on an obscure, pessimistic and religious tone.