Poet and novelist, born in Chiba. He dropped out of the Tokyo Senmon Gakko (later the Waseda University) in 1891. While studying there, he was baptized by Masahisa Uemura, and enjoyed Soho Tokutomi's favor in Seinen Bungakukai (the young literary world). In 1894, he joined the Kokumin Shimbun newspaper company. He served in the Sino-Japanese War as a reporter. Following the end of the war, he compiled a collection of poems that were published in newspapers and magazines as "Doppo gin" (Doppo's Poems) and in "Jojoshi" (Lyric Poems) (1897), a joint publication with Katai Tayama and others. He later published a romantic short story titled "Musashino" (1901), which he followed with "Doppo shu" (Doppo Collection) (1905) and "Unmei" (Destiny) (1906). With these works, he was called the forerunner of naturalism.The image was updated in October, 2007.