Background
Mokutaro Kinoshita was born in Shizuoka Prefecture. Originally named Masao Ota.
Mokutaro Kinoshita was born in Shizuoka Prefecture. Originally named Masao Ota.
After graduating from Tokyo University Mokutaro Kinoshita continued his medical studies in Germany, and upon return was appointed professor first at Aichi Medical College, then at Tohoku University and lastly at Tokyo University.
However, it is not as a professor of medicine that Mokutaro Kinoshita is remembered, but as a poet and a dramatist. While still a student he had a flair for poetry and contributed his works to Myo and Subaru magazines. As that time he was considered a better poet than Hakushu Kitahara. Abandoning poetry (1913) he took to writing novels and dramas and did much to lay the foundation of the new dramatic movement in this country. Among his works are "Song After Dinner" and "Dyeing House Izumi-ya."