Itō Sachio: Life and Major Works

Born in 1864 in Muza District, Kazusa Province (now Sanmu, Chiba Prefecture); his real name was Kōjirō. He went to Tokyo and ran a dairy business while pursuing waka poetry, becoming a disciple of Masaoka Shiki and inheriting Shiki's teaching of "shasei" (sketching from life). After Shiki's death he led the tanka reform movement through the magazines "Ashibi" and "Araragi," and as the central figure of the Negishi Tanka Society and the Araragi school he trained many talented poets, including Saitō Mokichi and Shimagi Akahiko. His 1906 story "Nogiku no Haka" ("The Grave of the Wild Chrysanthemum"), published in "Hototogisu," was highly praised by Natsume Sōseki and became a beloved pure-love story filled with innocent lyricism. He also wrote the novel "Tonari no Yome" ("The Wife Next Door") and left the tanka collection "Sachio Kashū." He died suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1913 at the age of 49.