Naobumi Ochiai was a Japanese tanka poet and scholar of Japanese literature of the Meiji Era. His "Song of Shiragiku, the Dutiful Daughter" started the vogue of shintaishi or poetry of a new style and versification, longer than the traditional waka or haiku.
Background
Naobumi Ochiai was born as Ayukai Morimitsu and was the biological elder brother of the Korean scholar Ayukai Fusanoshin. He was born in what was then Motoyoshi County, Mutsu Province, as the second son to Ayukai Taro Tairamorifusa, a high-ranking retainer of the Sendai Domain.
Education
From the ages 11 to 13, he studied, among other things, kangaku (Chinese studies), at the Sendai Private School, and in 1874 was adopted by the kokugaku scholar Ochiai Naoaki. His adopted father's research took him to Ise, where he studied in the Jingu Kyoin (later to become Kogakkan University).
In 1881, he moved to Tokyo, and the following year entered the School of Literature at Tokyo Imperial University. In 1884 he dropped out, and began three years of military service.
Career
From 1889 onward, Naobumi Ochiai taught at various academic institutions including Dai-ichi Koto Chugakko and the Tokyo Senmon Gakko (the predecessor to modern Waseda University). One of his students at the Dai-ichi Koto Chugakko was the tanka poet and calligrapher Saishu Onoe.
In 1889, he joined Mori Ogai in forming the literary society Shinsei Sha, and in August of that year they jointly translated and published the poetry anthology Omokage which was to have a significant impact on contemporary Japanese poetry.
In 1893, he formed another literary society, the Asaka Society.
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
Donald Keene called him "[t]he first distinctively new poet of the Meiji period" but commented that while he attempted to update tanka for the modern era, his attempts were "halfhearted".