SOURCE: "The Taisho Period (1912-1926)," in Dawn to the West, Japanese Literature of the Modern Era: Poetry, Drama, Criticism, Vol. 25, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1984, pp. 255-91.

In the following excerpt, Keene discusses the emotional characteristics of Hagiwara's poetry and his innovative use of colloquial language.

Hagiwara is by common consent the chief figure of modern Japanese poetry. He is not an easy poet, and the exact interpretations of many works elude the exegesis of even his most devoted admirers, but his work both commands the respect of other poets and critics and is popular with the general public. The novelist and poet Fukunaga Takehiko gave a representative evaluation: "Hagiwara Sakutarō is the outstanding writer of Japanese modern poetry; it is a recognized fact that his works constitute the most beautiful crystallizations of the Japanese language."

Hagiwara was born in Maebashi, an unremarkable city famous chiefly for its gusty...