Kinoshita Rigen

Rigen Kinoshita (木下利玄) was the pen-name of a Japanese author noted for his tanka poetry, active in Meiji period and Taisho period Japan. His real name was Kinoshita Toshiharu.

Early life
Rigen was born in what is now part of Okayana city, Okayama prefecture, and is a direct lineal descendent of a brother-in-law of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. His uncle, Kinoshita Toshiyasu, was the 13th and last daimyo of Ashimori han (25,000 koku). After the Meiji Restoration, he was given the title of viscount (shishaku) under the kazoku peerage system. When he died, his nephew Kinoshita Rigen, only 5 years old, succeeded to the main family as Viscount Kinoshita. Rigen would have thus been a daimyo if the Tokugawa bakufu had lasted only a few years longer. In any event, Rigen graduated from the Literature Department of Tokyo Imperial University. His classmates included Shiga Naoya and Mushanokoji Saneatsu, and he was a student of the noted poet Sasaki Nobutsuna.

Literary career
Rigen was a co-founder of the Shirakaba ("White Birch") Society, along with Shiga Naoya and Mushanokoji Saneatsu in 1910. He contributed extensively to the society's literary magazine, with elegant tanka verses, written in an easy-to-understand colloquial language. He published numberous anthologies of his verses, including Kogyoku ("Red Ball", 1919) and Ichiro ("One Alley", 1924).

Rigen moved to Kamakura, Kanagawa prefecture in 1919, as the sea air had a reputation for being good for lung disorders. However, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis and died a few years later.