1895 – 1940

Born in Kamisuwa, Nagano Prefecture. He dropped out of Suwa Middle School and worked at an elementary school. In 1912, he published poems in the tanka magazine Araragi. In 1913, he moved to Tokyo and transferred to a middle school, where he became involved in editing Araragi. In the autumn of 1915, due to illness, he took a break on Izu Oshima. In 1922, while living on Oshima, he published his poetry collection Aosugi and gained attention for his clear and refined poetic style. In 1917, he began writing children’s stories, which were intermittently published in the Shinano Mainichi Shimbun. In 1924, he published his first collection of children’s stories, Shika no me（”The Eyes of the Deer”）. He continued to write while moving around the country due to illness. His other works include the poetry collections Hadare（”Mottled Snow”） and Ikkai（”A Clump”）, and the children’s story collections Hasu no mi（”Lotus Seeds”） and Harappa （”The Meadow”）.