Makoto Ooka was born in Mishima City, Shizuoka, Japan, in 1931. He is the author of several volumes of poetry and literary criticism, including A String Around Autumn (1972), The Colors of Poetry: Essays on Traditional Japanese Verse (1991), and Beneath the Sleepless Tossing of the Planets (1995). He also wrote a daily popular poetry column for Asahi Shimbun, one of Japan’s top newspapers, and assisted in the popularization of a poetic form called renshi (also known as linked poetry). His honors include the 1993 Cultural Prize of the Municipality of Tokyo and the 1995 Japan Academy of the Arts Prize for poetry and criticism, as well the designations of Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1993 and a Person of Cultural Merit in 1997. He taught at both Meiji University and the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. Makoto Ooka died in 2017.
Audio Recordings with Makoto Ooka
- Makoto Ooka reading his poems in Japanese