Ishikawa Takuboku (石川啄木, 1886−1912) is Japanese poet and novelist; especially known for his tanka, the traditional Japanese short poem of 31 syllables.
This site introduces his works and life.
He intended to win fame for his novel, but failed it. In his despair and poverty, He "mistreated" the traditional short poem with a fixed form, that is tanka, to vent his indignation. As a results, he made tanka transform into a modern, urgent expression for the people living in the modern sciety.
"Today, my friends seemed
More a success than I.
So I bought flowers
And took them to
My wife, to make her happy."
His diaries, especially which written in Rōmaji (roman letters) from April to June of 1909, is famous with its frankness and nakedness.
"Why then have I decided to write this diary in Roman letters? What's the reason? I love my wife, and for the very reason I love her, I don't want her to read it. But I don't really mean that! That I love her is the truth, and that I love her is truth, and that I don't want her to read it is equally true, but these two statements aren't necessarily connected."
Poverty, illness, and tanka—permeate many of the twenty-six years of Takuboku's life, and like the contradictory manifestations that moderns are bombarded with, such an unusual triumvirate represents Takuboku's fall and greatnes.