Takuboku Ishikawa Poetry

Takuboku Ishikawa was a famous tanka poet from the Morioka area. He was born in 1886 and lived a hard life of teaching and writing to 1912 when he died of TB. The city of Morioka has honored him in various ways including building a walkway along the Kitakami River between the Kaiun and Asahi Bridges with stones along the way with his poems on them.


[One of his poems set in stone]

This picture is of the largest stone which has a poem something like;

The feelings in my heart in the time long ago,
I cannot express now.

Another of his poems is;

Like a kite cut from the string,
lightly the soul of my youth has taken flight.

When the City of Morioka built it's beautiful new bullet train station it honored him again. His handwriting was reproduced in large letters for the name on the front of the station.


[Morioka as written by Mr. Ishikawa]