Makoto Ooka is a distinguished poet. He is also a major critic of poetry, perhaps the finest in Japan today. Born in 1931, he is the author of many books of poems and more than two hundred books of plays and film scripts as well as volumes on art criticism, poetics, literary criticism and classic poetry. Honoured with major Japanese literary awards, Ooka has been translated into Chinese, Dutch, French, German and English. The French government has commissioned him an Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.