Introduction
Quickens in the world
A marvelous new poetry.
Previous to this in the early part of 1899, a group of younger poets had rallied around Shiki, gathering monthly at his house and composing verse upon a given subject. This group is the origin of the famous Negishi Poetry Society which played such an important rôle in the subsequent history of the Japanese poetry. To the first gathering of 1900, Sachio came, and one of the members wrote:
“A big, fat man whose name was Sachio Ito came, but we paid little attention to him.”
Another person recorded:
“Sachio had no education, and at Shiki’s he was the laughing stock of the whole group.”
As he freely admitted, Sachio was truly a cowherd and paid little attention to his external appearance. He was so extremely nearsighted that he had to wear two pairs of heavy glasses to see anything at all, which gave him an uncouth appearance. He was very tall and stout; his contemporaries regarded him as enormous. Altogether he was not prepossessing, especially to smart and refined city people. Shiki, who was
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