Novelist and children's writer. While attending the Imperial University of Tokyo in 1906, at the suggestion of Natsume Soseki he published Chidori in the magazine Hototogisu and debuted as a novelist. He published a collection of short stories, Chiyogami, in 1907, and later while working as a middle-school teacher he wrote Romanticism works like Kotori no Su (The Bird's Nest) in 1910. He then switched to being a children's book writer and issued the children's magazine Akai Tori (Red Bird) in 1918, for which he also served as its editor-in-chief. He encouraged children's cultural activities and educated many young children's writers.