When he was studying at Tokyo Ordinary Middle School (later Tokyo First Junior High School and currently Tokyo Metropolitan Hibiya High School), he intended to become a playwright and after graduation joined a newspaper publisher, Tokyo Nichinichi Shinbun.
東京府尋常中学（のちの東京府立一中、現東京都立日比谷高等学校）在学中から劇作家を志し、卒業後1890年、東京日日新聞入社。