He entered the Department of Aesthetics under the Faculty of Letters of the Imperial University of Tokyo in 1926 and during his time at college he participated in the Shinjin-kai group and was influenced by Marxism. He dropped out of university in 1928 and was arrested on suspicion of violation of the Peace Preservation Law after the March 15 incident the same year. Due to his rejection of socialism, he was later released. In 1934 he published Tenkei-ki no Bungaku (Literature in the Age of Transition) and later launched the magazine Nihon Roman-ha (Japanese Romanticism) with YASUDA Yojuro and others and continued to develop his interest in the world of Japanese classics and antiques. In the post-war era, he was recognized for his works, notably Waga Seishin no Henreki (Trace of My Mind) and criticism from a religious perspective. In 1965 he won the Kikuchi Kan prize for Nihon-jin no Seishin-shi Kenkyu (Study on the History of Japanese Minds) and was allowed membership in the Japan Art Academy.