Poet and novelist. Born into a farming family and moved to Tokyo in 1885. After working in a dairy shop he started to manage his own dairy shop in 1889. In 1900 he started to study poetry under Masaoka Shiki. After Shiki’s passing, he became the central figure in the poets’ group Negishi Tanka-kai and launched its bulletin Asebi. In 1906 his novel Nogiku no Haka (The Grave of Wild Crythanthemum) became a best seller and then he wrote autobiographical novels like Tonari no Yome (A Wife of a Neighboring Family) in 1908 and Bunke (The Branch Family) in 1911-12. He launched a new magazine, Araragi, which succeeded Asebi.