Born into a wealthy family, Hagiwara Sakutaro (18861942) was able as a young man to devote himself to poetry. Although he did not finish college, he read Western authors, including Poe, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, and Dostoevsky. His major works of poetry, written in 1917 and 1923, were "Howling at the Moon" and "Blue, " collected in this volume. These books transformed modern Japanese poetry, and changed forever the face of the future poetic landscape in Japan.Brilliantly translated by Hiroaki Sato, this book was originally published by the University of Tokyo Press, and has long been out of print.