Inoue Kenkabō

was the pen-name of a journalist and writer of senryū (short, humorous verse) in late Meiji, Taishō and early Shōwa period Japan. His real name was Inoue Kōichi.

Early life Inoue was born in Hagi city, Yamaguchi prefecture, as the son of an ex-samurai of the Chōshū domain. He was largely self-educated.

After working part-time as an elementary school teacher and a reporter for a local newspaper, he moved to Tokyo in 1900 and began writing the arts column for the literary magazine, Myogi. Three years later, he joined the Nihon Shimbun newspaper as a reporter. Using the pen name, "Kenkabō", he began a column called Shindai yanagidaru (Willow Barrel), which advocated a new style of senryū poetry.

Literary career In 1905, Inoue founded a poetry group called Ryusonji Senryū Kai, which brought out its own short-lived literary magazine called Senryū. Shin senryū rokusen ku ("Six Thousand New Senryū"), Senryū o tsukuru hito ni ("For Senryū Poets") and Ko senryū shinzui ("The Essence of Classical Senryū"). However, she is better known for her outspoken criticism of the military during the Russo-Japanese War and against Japanese militarism in the 1930s. She was a nurse during the Russo-Japanese War; later she protected the antiwar writer Tsuru Akira and the two were arrested together in 1937.

Inoue and Nobuko had a daughter, Ôishi Tsuruko (born 1907).