Sakutarō Hagiwara

I'll be honest, I used to file Sakutarō Hagiwara under "old Japanese poet I should probably respect," and then I actually read him and felt a little ambushed. The guy was born in 1886, an era when poetry was supposed to be stiff and formal, and instead he wrote in plain, almost-spoken language that hits you right in the chest. "Howling at the Moon" alone tells you everything about his wiring, that ache and loneliness sitting just under the surface, and he never flinched from putting it down straight. He died in his mid-fifties, which feels too soon, but he basically cracked open the door for modern colloquial poetry in Japan. Quiet voice, steel spine. I came in expecting homework and left genuinely moved, which is the best kind of surprise.

This take was written by generative AI, one per person, from publicly reported facts (editorial policy). It is a reading of the record, not reporting.

Sakutarō Hagiwara (1886–1942) was a Japanese poet, novelist, and literary critic born in Maebashi, Gunma Prefecture. He is widely regarded as a pioneer of modern colloquial-language poetry in Japan, breaking from classical literary conventions to write in the vernacular. His landmark collection Tsuki ni Hoeru (Howling at the Moon) established his reputation as a poet of deep psychological tension and lyrical unease. He left several schools, including Keio University's preparatory course, without graduating, and remained active as a writer and critic until his death from pneumonia in 1942 at the age of 55.

Name (English)

Sakutarō Hagiwara

Name (Japanese)

萩原朔太郎

Reading

はぎわら さくたろう

Born

November 1, 1886 – May 11, 1942

Origin

Kitakurwamachi, Gunma Prefecture, Japan

Occupation

Poet / Novelist / Writer / Literary Critic / Waka Poet

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Scorpio / Dog

University

Keio University

Filmography / notable works

• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%90%A9%E5%8E%9F%E6%9C%94%E5%A4%AA%E9%83%8E
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q583527

Tags

• From Gunma Prefecture
• Poet
• Novelist
• Writer

Last updated

November 2, 2026

Only publicly available facts are listed; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. Base data was compiled from Wikidata from June 2026 onward; ages are recalculated daily and deaths are checked against Wikidata on an ongoing basis. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.