Makoto Ooka

Born in Shizuoka, Japan in 1931, Ooka graduated from Tokyo University, then joined the the Yomiuri Shimbun as a reporter. He taught Japanese literature at Meiji University and at the National University of Fine Arts and Music. He has lectured on Japanese poetry in many countries, notably in France at the College de France, and in the United States at Columbia University, Harvard University, and Princeton University. Poem chains on which he has collaborated have appeared in Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish and German. Among his many international and Japanese honors and awards are Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the French government and the Japan Academy of the Arts Prize from the Emperor of Japan. And more than 250 volumes of plays, screenplays, and essays on literature and the arts. Since 1979, his column Oriori no Uta has been featured daily on the front page of the morning Asahi Shimbun, Japan's leading newspaper.

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