Novelist. A son of Hirotsu Shunzo, a samurai in the Kurume clan. In 1887 his first political novel Joshi Sansei Shinchuro (The Mirage of Women Suffrage) was published in the newspaper Tokyo Eiri Shimbun (Tokyo Illustrated Newspaper), which received positive reviews, and he started to work as a professional novelist. He joined the publisher Hakubunkan and became a member of Kenyu-sha. After he established his presence as a novelist with Zangiku (Late Chrysanthemums) (1889), he wrote social novels (so-called shinkoku shosetsu or hisan shosetsu) like Kurotokage (Black Lizard) (1895), which depicted the dark side of life and society.