"The life of a fake artist"), also translated as The Counterfeiter, is a Japanese novella by Yasushi Inoue first published in 1951.

[1][2][3] In early 1951, an art journalist receives an invitation for the 13th death anniversary of famous painter Keigaku Ōnuki.

Abandoned by his wife, Hara illegally experimented with gunpowder to create a firework of the colour of red chrysanthemums.

The journalist contemplates on the fate of a man who, overshadowed by a famous artist friend, never received recognition for his own talent and faded into obscurity.

Life of a Counterfeiter first appeared in the October 1951 edition of Shinchō magazine[1] and was published in book form by Sōgensha the same year.