Ono Tosaburo was a poet, novelist, and children’s author from Osaka. He dropped out of Toyo University in the early 1920s to write poetry and became acquainted with Tsuboi Shigeji and other anarchist poets, helping to found the poetry journals Aka to Kuro (Red and Black) and Dando (Ballistic). In 1933, he returned to Osaka and later published the anthology Osaka, which focused on the industrial area of the city. After World War II, Ono founded a school of literary studies, of which he served as principal until 1991. He also wrote and published novels and children’s stories along with poetry. His anthology Kyozetsu no ki (Tree of Rejection, 1975) won the Yomiuri Prize.
See also CHILDREN’S LITERATURE.
Historical dictionary of modern Japanese literature and theater. J. Scott Miller. 2009.