Background
Writer. Formerly a retainer of the Tosa Clan (Kochi Prefecture), he was born in Kochi. Studied at the Daigaku Nanko,predecessor of Tokyo University, and was employed by the Engineering Ministry. He later studied under Robun Kanagaki,novelist, and became a
newspaperman. After 1892, he wrote in five years Nihon Meisho Chishi in 12 volumes, which described the topographical features
of noted places in Japan.Toined the Japan Railway Company and later became an adviser of the Railway Board. He was good at
writing comic or satirical articles and com posing kyolca, or satirical waka. He was in fact the last master of kyoka which thrived in the Edo Period. In his late years, he wrote "Literature in the Meiji Era As I See It," which was partly his autobiography.
