Poet and psychiatrist. He attended the Medical School of the Imperial University of Tokyo in 1905 and started to study under Ito Sachio next year, and published poetry in the magazine Ashibi and in its successor magazine Araragi. In 1913 his first verse collection Shako (Red Light) immediately earned him recognition, and he published his second collection, Aratama (Unpolished Gem), in 1921. In 1917 he was appointed as a professor at the Nagasaki Specialized School of Medicine and in 1921 he studied in Europe as a researcher commissioned by the Ministry of Education. After returning to Japan in 1924, he became head of Aoyama Psychiatric Hospital. Later he actively published criticism and essays along with poetry, and published the essay series Kakinomotono Hitomaro (1934-40). In a deep shock from Japan’s defeat in the war, he published the verse collection Tomoshibi (Light) (1950) in the post-war era. Awarded the Order of Culture in 1951.