was a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

of the Taishō period, a member of the Araragi school of

tanka is a genre of classical Japanese poetry and one of the major genres of Japanese literature. Etymology Originally, in the time of the ''Man'yōshū'' (latter half of the eighth century AD), the term ''tanka'' was used to distinguish "short poem ...

, and a

psychiatrist A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry, the branch of medicine devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, study, and treatment of mental disorders. Psychiatrists are physicians and evaluate patients to determine whether their sy ...

. The psychiatrist Shigeta Saitō ( ''Japanese Wikipedia article'') is his first son, the novelist

Morio Kita was the pen name of , a Japanese psychiatrist, novelist and essayist. Kita was the second son of poet Mokichi Saitō. Shigeta Saitō, his older brother, was also a psychiatrist. The essayist Yuka Saitō is Kita's daughter. Kita attended Azab ...

is his second son and the essayist Yuka Saitō is his granddaughter. Mokichi was born in the village of Kanakame, now part of

Kaminoyama, Yamagata 250px, Hayama neighborhood in Kaminoyama is a city located in Yamagata Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 29,617 in 11278 households, and a population density of 120 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . G ...

in 1882. He attended

Tokyo Imperial University , abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project by ...

Medical School and, upon graduation in 1911, joined the staff of Sugamo Hospital where he began his study of psychiatry. He later directed Aoyama Hospital, a psychiatric facility. Mokichi studied tanka under

Itō Sachio was the pen-name of , a Japanese ''tanka'' poet and novelist active during the Meiji period of Japan. Biography Itō was born in what is now Sanmu city, Chiba prefecture, as the younger son to a farming family. He attended the ''Meiji Hōritsu ...

, a disciple of Masaoka Shiki and leader, after his master's death, of the Negishi Tanka Society; Sachio also edited the society's official journal ''Ashibi''. This magazine, due to Sachio's increasing commitment to other literary activities, was subsequently replaced by ''

Araragi ''Araragi'' is a genus of butterflies in the family Lycaenidae. It is a small East Asian hairstreak genus. The larvae feed on ''Juglans'' (walnut) species. Species *'' Araragi enthea'' (Janson, 1877) *'' Araragi sugiyamai'' Matsui, 1989 *'' Ar ...

'' in 1908. The publication in 1913 of Mokichi's first collection of tanka, ''Shakkō'' ("Red Light") was an immediate sensation with the broader public. The first edition collected the poet's work from the years 1905-1913 and included 50 tanka sequences (''rensaku''), with the autobiographical being perhaps the most celebrated sequence in the book. Mokichi's career as a poet spanned almost 50 years. At the time of his death at the age of 70, he had published seventeen poetry collections which include “14,200 or so poems,” the collected works being overwhelmingly devoted to

. In 1950 he received the inaugural

Yomiuri Prize The is a literary award in Japan. The prize was founded in 1949 by the Yomiuri Shinbun Company to help form a "strong cultural nation". The winner is awarded two million Japanese yen and an inkstone. Award categories For the first two years, a ...

for poetry. He received the

Order of Culture The is a Japanese order, established on February 11, 1937. The order has one class only, and may be awarded to men and women for contributions to Japan's art, literature, science, technology, or anything related to culture in general; recipien ...

in 1951. Mokichi was the family doctor of author

Ryūnosuke Akutagawa , art name , was a Japanese writer active in the Taishō period in Japan. He is regarded as the "father of the Japanese short story", and Japan's premier literary award, the Akutagawa Prize, is named after him. He committed suicide at the age of ...

and may have unknowingly played an indirect role in the latter's suicide.Shinoda and Goldstein, p.59. He also wrote philological essays on

waka Waka may refer to: Culture and language * Waka (canoe), a Polynesian word for canoe; especially, canoes of the Māori of New Zealand ** Waka ama, a Polynesian outrigger canoe ** Waka hourua, a Polynesian ocean-going canoe ** Waka taua, a Māori w ...

Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Kakinomoto no Hitomaro (柿本人麻呂 or 柿本人麿; – ) was a Japanese ''waka'' poet and aristocrat of the late Asuka period. He was the most prominent of the poets included in the ''Man'yōshū'', the oldest ''waka'' anthology, but ap ...

and of

Minamoto no Sanetomo was the third ''shōgun'' of the Kamakura shogunate. He was the second son of the Kamakura shogunate founder, Minamoto no Yoritomo. His mother was Hōjō Masako and his older brother was second Kamakura shogun Minamoto no Yoriie. His childhood n ...

Notes

References

*Heinrich, Amy Vladeck, 1983. ''Fragments of Rainbows: The Life and Poetry of Saitō Mokichi''. New York: Columbia University Press. . *Keene, Donald, 1999. ''Dawn to the West: A History of Japanese Literature, Volume 4 - Japanese Literature of the Modern Era (Poetry, Drama, Criticism)''. New York: Columbia University Press. . *Shinoda, Seishi and Sanford Goldstein, eds., 1989. ''Red Lights: Selected Tanka Sequences from Shakkō by Mokichi Saitō''. West Lafayette: Purdue University Press. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Saito, Mokichi 1882 births 1953 deaths Japanese psychiatrists People associated with the Department of Neuropsychiatry University of Tokyo University of Tokyo alumni People from Yamagata Prefecture 20th-century Japanese poets Yomiuri Prize winners