Shinobu Orikuchi

• Name — Shinobu Orikuchi • Born — 11 February 1887 • Birthplace — Osaka • Died — 3 September 1953 • Other Names — 折口 信夫 (a pen name:釋 迢空) • Education — Kokugakuin University (Bachelor of Letters, Doctor of Letters) • Occupation — ethnologist, linguist, folklorist, novelist, and poet • Partner — Harumi Orikuchi

Orikuchi was born in the former Nishinari, Ōsaka (now part of Naniwa-ku, Osaka). After graduating with a degree in Japanese literature from Kokugakuin University in 1910, he started to teach Japanese and Chinese classics at junior high schools. In 1919, he was employed as a part-time instructor in Kokugakuin University. In 1922, he was promoted to professor. In 1924, he was hired as a professor at Keio University as well; afterward, he taught at two different universities until he died. As a poet, he and Kitahara Hakushu established a tanka magazine called Nikkō ("Sunshine") in 1924. In 1925, he published Between the Sea and the Mountains, his first tanka book, which is highly esteemed. In 1934, he received a doctorate for his study on the Man'yōshū. He also established the Japan Folklorists Society. As a folklorist, Yanagita was known for rejecting every sexual subject; Orikuchi, in contrast, was very open-minded to these matters. He became a model for the protagonist in Mishima's short story Mikumano Mōde, while his novel Shisha no Sho was the basis for a film by Kihachiro Kawamoto.

Orikuchi was a homosexual (nanshokuka). Harumi Orikuchi (折口春洋), scholar of Japanese literature and poet, was his de facto partner. Harumi died in the Battle of Iwo Jima.

• "Between The Sea And The Mountains" – Tanka book • "The Spring Forerunner" – Tanka book • "The Book of the Dead" – Novel, translated into English in 2016 by Jeffrey Angles • "The Ancient Study" – Treatise on folklore and literature in ancient Japan • Kabuki San – Kabuki review

Shinobu Orikuchi is recorded as linguist, poet, novelist, writer and university teacher.