Linguist, folklorist. The son of a samurai of the Ryukyu Clan. In 1903, he entered the Department of Linguistics of the Imperial University of Tokyo. After graduating in 1906, he returned to his hometown and engaged in the collection of local materials and enlightenment campaigns as the Librarian of the Okinawa Prefectural Library. In 1921, he began to interact with YANAGIDA Kunio, and in 1925 he moved to Tokyo. After that, he lived a life of study and devoted himself to researching the collection of old songs, Omoro soshi. He laid the foundation for research on Okinawan culture, and is known as the “father of Okinawan studies”. His representative works include Ko Ryukyu (Old Ryukyu) (1911).