Takashi Nagatsuka


Takashi Nagatsuka was a Japanese poet and novelist. According to prominent historian Ann Waswo, Nagatsuka Takashi was born into a landowning family.
Generally, he was born in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. More specifically, his place of birth was 国生村 in :ja:石下町|石下町, which was merged in 2006 with 水海道市 to form modern day :ja:常総市|常総市.
In 1896, poor health forced him to stop his middle-school education in Mito. In accordance with his duties as eldest son, he assisted his mother Taka in managing their six acres of arable land. He started experimenting in 1905 with different fertilizers, crop-rotation, charcoal-production, and commercial-grade bamboo-production. These are just some of his attempts to save the family's finances from the political career of his father Genjiro, since he tended to absorb other people's debts.
In Tokyo, he studied poetry with Masaoka Shiki starting 1900 until 1902, the same year Shiki died of tuberculosis.
His only novel 土 was published in 151-installment series from June–November of1910 in the :ja:東京朝日新聞|東京朝日新聞, which eventually became today's :ja:朝日新聞|朝日新聞 after a merger with the :ja:大阪朝日新聞|大阪朝日新聞. Two years after its newspaper serialization, 土 was published as a complete work in book form in 1912. The novel depicts life in rural Japan and in Kossho Village. The characters are based on actual people although their names are altered. The novel's copyright expired in the mid-1960s.
He died of laryngeal tuberculosis on February 8, 1915.

Major works