Inokichi Kubo

Who was Inokichi Kubo?

Inokichi Kubo was a Japanese pioneer of otorhinolaryngology and professor at Fukuoka Medical School.

He graduated from The Medical School of Tokyo Imperial University in 1900, and went on an overseas study program to Gustav Killian in Freiburg in 1903. Four years later he returned to Japan, where he took up the post of professor at Fukuoka Medical School.

His wife, Yorie, was a haiku poet from Matsuyama. As Kubo was a well-known poet too, their home in Fukuoka soon became the social center for poets in Northern Kyushu.

He was attending doctor of Setsu Nagatsuka. Kubo was one of the pioneers of otorhinolaryngology in Japan, and was selected as a representative of his country for the first International Congress of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology at Copenhagen. In 1934 he was awarded the Légion d'honneur.

Kubo was famous for his Haiku- and Waka-poetry, and became a pupil of Naobumi Ochiai. As a poet he found a mentor in Naobumi Ochiai, with Saishu Onoe formed Ikazuchi kai, and created friendship with Byakuren Yanagihara. After it he started the study of Haiku and was a pupil of Kyoshi Takahama.