Kitamura, Tokoku

Born Dec. 29, 1868, in Odawara, Kanagawa Prefecture; died May 16, 1894. Japanese poet and writer on public affairs. Leader of the group of young writers that published the magazine Bungaku-kai (World of Literature) from 1893 to 1898.

Calling for a struggle against the old feudal morality, Kitamura at the same time opposed blind imitation of the West: his views were expressed in the collection Verses of a Prisoner (1889). His next collection of verse, Songs of a Fabled Land (1891), was characterized by themes of despair and romantic flight from reality. Noteworthy among his topical essays are People and Ideology (1893) and Ideals of Ordinary People in the Tokugawa Period (1892). He died by suicide.