I lived from 1886-1912.
I was from Japan, and am in the Asian category.
Takuboku was born on the 20th February 1886 at Joko Temple, Hinoto, Japan. His father was the priest of the temple. He began his schooling at the age of four and by 1899 had already published his first literary booklet, using a hand-printing method hectograph.
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A year later, in 1890, he formed a self-study group in order to learn English and also began publishing and circulating his own maagzine. However, it was not until some of his tanka (an ancient form of Japanese poetry) were publsihed in the Iwate Nippo newspaper, that the public really got to see and appreciate his work.
Owing to his literary ambitions, Tabkuboko dropped out of school and concentrated instead on writing articles and sumbitting poems to various magazines and publications. In 1904, after the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese war, he wrote a series of articles entitled Personal Memorandum of War Time.
In 1905 his first collection of poems, Admiration, was published. Also in that year he married Setsuko Horiai, his love since school days.
From 1906 he worked as a substitute teacher and a freelance reporter, before
joining the Kushiro Shimbun newspaper in 1908. During this time he wrote The Clouds are Geniuses, although it was was never published during his lifetime.
By 1909 he had moved to Tokyo and in 1910 a collection of his tanka, A Fistful of Sand was published. A further colelction, Grieving Toys was later published posthumously.
Owing to ill health Takuboku moved to Koishikawa, where he died of tuberculosis on 13th April 1912.
Biography information: echna.ne.jp
My poetry
Lying on the dune sand
this day I recall
4 lines, 3 comments
I've worked harder than hardest,
Yet I'm no better off;
3 lines, 4 comments
doctor says
'Well now,
5 lines
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