Born at Magome in Chikuma Prefecture (Nakatsugawa, Gifu) into a family that ran the official inn and served as village head; his real name was Haruki.
He went to Tokyo to study, later attending Meiji Gakuin and being baptized a Christian.
He joined Kitamura Tōkoku and others in the magazine Bungakukai.
He published the poetry collection Wakanashū, whose poems such as "First Love" made him the poet of a new age.
He became a teacher at a school in Komoro, Nagano, married, and began writing fiction.
He published Hakai (The Broken Commandment), about a young man suffering discrimination, a landmark of naturalist literature.
He went to France and spent several years there.
He began serializing Yoakemae (Before the Dawn), portraying the late Edo and Meiji eras through a hero modelled on his father.
He became the first president of the Japan PEN Club.
He died at Ōiso in Kanagawa.
Kitamura TokokuIwase TadanariShimamura HōgetsuTayama Katai
Shiga KiyoshiKunikida DoppoKōtoku ShūsuiHiguchi IchiyōTayama KataiHata SahachirōHishida ShunsōNoguchi Hideyo
People of the Meiji period ・ People by period
Based on facts found in textbooks and biographies. Uncertain points are marked as such.