Background
Haiku poet and scholar of classic. Japanese literature. Born in Nagoya. Original personal name: Takeo. After graduating from Tokyo University (1901) where he studied Japanese classics, he became a newspaper and magazine reporter and then instructor at the First Higher School and Tokyo University. Grieved by the Toranomon Incident (1923) in which the present Emperor, when he was still Prince Regent, was shot at by Daisuke Namba, a would-be assassin, he started writing for the purpose of promoting Japanese spirit. Known as an authority on Basho Matsuo, the great haiku poet, he wrote nearly 20 books on haiku poetry.
